Chemists are Artists
Project Description: This project was organized with the intent to express the artistic nature of chemistry. Our objective was simple and provided us with broad range of opportunities; create a piece of art using chemistry. My group decided to make a set of paintings using the same design but different colors, inspired by the pop art style popularized by Andy Warhol. To cover the chemistry piece, we made the paints using double displacement chemical reactions.
Concepts:
- Chemical Reaction: one or more substances turn into one or more new substances: bonds are broken, atoms are rearranged, and new bonds are formed; example from project: KI + Pb(NO3)2 -> K(NO3)2 + PbI (potassium iodide added to lead nitrate produces potassium nitrate and lead iodide)
- Balancing Chemical Reactions: in order for a chemical reaction to be balanced, both sides of the equation must have the same amount of mass
- Law of Conservation of Mass: matter cannot be created or destroyed
- Synthesis Reaction: a chemical reaction in which two substances form one new compound A+B->AB
- Decomposition Reaction: a chemical reaction in which one substance decomposes into two or more different compounds; AB->A+B
- Single Replacement Reaction: a chemical reaction in which a more reactive metal replaces the position of a less reactive metal within an ionic compound; AB+C->AC+B
- Double Replacement Reaction: a chemical reaction in which two metals swap positions between their compounds thus creating two new compounds; AB+CD->AD+BC; example from project: when creating all of our colors we used double replacement reactions, as displayed in the reaction between potassium iodide and lead nitrate, yielding a yellow solid
- Combustion Reaction: a chemical reaction in which carbon dioxide and water are produced due to the introduction of some kind of heat source; Hydrocarbon + O2->CO2+H2
- Solubility Guidelines: a set of patterns that can predict that outcome of a reaction due to the ability of the products to dissolve into a solution; example from project: when conducting all of our chemical reactions we used the solubility guidelines so that we new that the reaction would take place
- Reactivity Series: a set of patterns that can predict the outcome of a reaction due to the reactivity of the products
- Aqueous Solution: a liquid solution made up of an ionic compound; example from project: potassium nitrate is one of the aqueous solutions we used
- Precipitate: an insoluble compound formed by a double displacement reaction; example from project: potassium nitrate is one of the precipitates we collected in the process of making our paints, in this case yellow
- Ionic Compound: a compound composed of two ions (one of which is a metal); example from project: one of the ionic compounds we used was lead nitrate