High speed video capture of a phosphorous explosion

[woelen]

I did a nice and quite spectacular experiment, in which red phosphorous is reacting with KIO4. A pink/purple cloud is produced and an intensely bright and hot flash. Really beautiful.

 

I made little movies at this at 60 frames per second, and the result is quite impressive. Unfortunately, I could not capture the very moment of explosion itself (total overexposure of the camera), but both the onset and the afterglow can perfectly be captured.

 

Here is a link to the webpage, describing the experiment:

 

http://woelen.scheikunde.net/science/chem/exps/KIO4+P/index.html

 

Any comments on this are welcome. Also if you have suggestions for similar experiments, which can safely be performed, I would like to know.

[Gilded]

Very nice, if not awesome. I've been thinking about filming various reactions myself too (on 60fps or similar, then converting to lower value for slow motion, especially for fast reactions), what sort of camera do you use?

[woelen]

For this kind of high speed filming I use a Canon Powershot A620. This camera is very good at making pictures, and also in filming. I am disappointed by its macro capabilities though. For that purpose (see most still pictures on my website) I use a Pentax Optio S.

 

I also did experiments with Mn2O7. Currently I'm working on a webpage about that and the results I will post lateron.

[Borek]

Great one - this purple smoke looks perfect

 

Best,

Borek

--

Chemical calculators at www.chembuddy.com

www.pH-meter.info

[woelen]

@Borek: Indeed, the purple smoke is very neat looking. Also without high-speed camera, that effect can be watched nicely.

 

@Gilded: I also completed the page on the Mn2O7 experiments. This shows formation of nice mushrooms clouds of smoke and fire:

 

http://woelen.scheikunde.net/science/chem/exps/mn2o7_hs/index.html

 

The use of a high speed digital camera indeed adds a whole new dimension to the chemistry experiments. Features can be detected, which otherwise would remain unnoticed.

[Gilded]

Wow, nice! Interesting too, especially with that flare effect and all. Many of the other experiments are amazing too, great stuff in general. It's not every day you see experiments being done with relatively rare elements, praseodymium and rhenium to name a few. Something that would also be great to see (although they don't usually produce very flashy effects) are some very endothermic reactions - perhaps mix some barium hydroxide (octahydrate) and ammonium nitrate and stick a temperature probe somewhere in there. I've never seen this done and more endothermic reactions don't come to mind right now, but something along those lines would be nice to see.