Exhibition chemistry
Spectacular science demonstrations to inspire your students
Make water ‘disappear’ with a superabsorbent polymer
Use just sodium polyacrylate, water and table salt to amaze learners and show how chemists modify materials for their purposes
Demonstrate electrochemistry with a gravity cell
Video, kit list and teaching tips to set up a one-beaker copper–zinc voltaic cell to explore redox reactions
Experiment with surface tension and convection currents
Use this demonstration when teaching concentration gradients, diffusion and convection at 11–16
Dissolve coloured sweets to create a rainbow
Demonstrate diffusion, density and the particle model to your 14–16 learners in this easy experiment
Demonstrations with dry ice
Explore changes of state and neutralisation reactions with this trio of demonstrations using solid carbon dioxide
Non-burning paper: investigate the fire triangle and conditions for combustion
Use this reworking of the classic non-burning £5 note demonstration to explore combustion with learners aged 11–16 years
Illustrate polymer properties with a self-siphoning solution
Demonstrate the tubeless siphon with poly(ethylene glycol) and highlight the polymer’s viscoelasticity to your 11–16 learners
Demonstrate concentration and density with a transition metal colloid cell
Boost 11–14 learners’ understanding of diffusion and transition metal chemistry
Highlight transition metal chemistry with an oscillating luminol reaction
Light up your 16–18 learners’ interest in catalysis and transition metal properties with this chemiluminescent reaction
Reversible reactions with transition metal complexes
Use this copper-based, colour-changing demonstration to introduce your 14–16 learners to reversible reactions
Demonstrate changes of state using volume differences
Use this demonstration to reinforce the differences between states of matter with your 11–14 learners
Creating a supersaturated gas evolving oscillator
Use this fizzy practical for a kinetic and thermodynamic showdown in class
Demonstrate intermolecular forces with colourful separations
Layer intermolecular interactions into your practical lessons with these chromatic experiments
Brew up interest in redox with this quick reduction
Use this fresh, fast approach to demonstrate the colourful oxidation states of vanadium
Demonstrating the chameleon redox reaction with a lollipop
Give your students a sweet treat with this colourful manganate(VII) reaction demo
Demonstrating the importance of surface area to rates of reaction
Use a combustible powder demo to engage students and teach them about safety in the lab
The production and combustion of nitrocellulose
Get your students engaged in a flash with this impressive demo
Demonstrating the heating curve of tert-butanol
Use this to effectively show your students two changes of state in one experiment
The reaction between sodium and chlorine
Use this to demonstrate this classic and spectacular chemistry experiment
Shocking revelations 2: neutralisation reactions
Use this experiment to demonstrate the different behaviours of weak and strong acids
Shocking revelations: a conductometric titration
Strengthen students’ mental models of particles reacting in solution
The movement of ions: bringing electrolysis to life
Demonstrate the movement of positive and negative ions with a simpler, safer version of this classic demo
Dynamite soap: The combustion of stoichiometric hydrogen–oxygen mixtures
Add this quick demo to the end of a lesson on squeaky pops to show the dramatic impact of mixing chemicals in the correct proportions
Demonstrating the diffusion of ammonia and hydrogen chloride
Revisiting and refining a classic diffusion demo with Declan Fleming
The gallium beating heart
Explore redox chemistry with this safer alternative to the mercury beating heart demo
Pyrophoric silanes
Use the impressive reaction of pyrophoric silanes in air to explore a range of chemistry topics with your students
The screaming jelly baby
Demonstrate energy release in action with this spectacular experiment
The reaction of magnesium with steam
How to bridge a common gap in students’ understanding of the reactivity series
Superheated steam
Ready to start a fire with water? Use this demo to teach students about enthalpy and properties of water
When life gives you lemons (or oranges)
Teach your students about volatile organic compounds with these juicy demonstrations
Don’t go breakin’ (down) my (love) heart
Teach chemical change and the thermal stability of carbonates with this simple demonstration using sweets
Fire stopper
Teach the extinguishing properties and density of CO₂ safely
Avogadro in action
Hydrogenating an alkene without the need for heating
Cracking!
Here’s how to crack the cracking of long chain hydrocarbons
Bright sparks
The spontaneous combustion of high surface area iron
The blueprint reaction
Get creative with a photochemical demo
The glow stick reaction
Light up the classroom with this simple, safe and value-for-money demonstration of chemiluminescence
Oscillating magic?
Wow them with a colour change reaction
Lighting up oxygen
Excite your students with chemiluminescence
An icebreaker for thermodynamics
Your students can learn a lot of chemistry from watching water freeze
The rainbow flame demonstration
How to do it safely
The genie in the bottle
Demonstrating the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide
Light-speed learning
A quick, fun way to get students thinking about random and systematic errors, accuracy and precision
Flaming phosphorus
How to generate your own white phosphorus for a fiery oxidation demonstration
Containing the dichromate volcano
An updated and safer version of this classic, spectacular chemistry demonstration
Clarifying compounds and mixtures
Declan Fleming clears up confusion in a puff of purple vapour
A flash in the pan
The chip pan fire demonstration
Easier equilibrium
How bailing buckets can support students’ grasp of Le Chatelier’s principle
An electrifying lesson
Explaining electron transitions using LEDs
Incendiary silver
An impressive organometallic explosive
Creating copper
Declan Fleming presents a beautiful demonstration with lots of teaching potential
Chilling effects
Declan Fleming delves into spontaneous endothermic reactions
Lighting up copper
Declan Fleming creates ghostly luminescent solutions
Properties of alloys: finding the NaK
Why is NaK a liquid? Declan Fleming finds out
Rainbow fizz
Declan Fleming presents some simple pH demonstrations
Nailing corrosion demonstrations
Declan Fleming presents an experiment to illustrate the electrochemistry of rusting
Seaweed spheres
Declan Fleming demonstrates gels with a culinary curiosity
A red sun
Declan Fleming makes a glowing sun with red phosphorus
Alkali metal roulette
Declan Fleming takes the reactions of alkali metals in water a step further
Eggsplosive chemistry
Declan Fleming shows you how to capture your students’ imaginations with spectacular demonstrations
Red hot carbon
Declan Fleming shows you how to capture your students’ imaginations with spectacular demonstrations
Magic beakers
Declan Fleming shows you how to capture your students’ imaginations with spectacular demonstrations
Golden rain
A stunning suspension of glistening yellow crystals
Perturbed polymers
Declan Fleming shows you how to capture your students’ imaginations with spectacular demonstrations
Dancing flames
An experiment with an eerie green flame which really provides a wow factor
Brilliant bubbles and disappearing dyes
Declan Fleming shows you how to capture your students’ imaginations with spectacular demonstrations
Beyond the ‘blue bottle’
Using indigo carmine to produce a range of stunning colours
Cannon fire
Declan Fleming shows you how to capture your students’ imaginations with spectacular demonstrations
Balls of fire!
Another spectacular demonstration of the dehydrating properties of acid
A visible reduction
Declan Fleming shows you how to capture your students’ imaginations with spectacular demonstrations
Microwaveable solvents
Demonstrating solvent polarity using a microwave oven
Hot ice
Produce attractive stalagmite formulations in the lab
Ethanol rockets
Putting the energy from the 'methanol whoosh bottle experiment' to good use
Luminol fountain
Create a dramatic and eerie 'cold light' fountain
Sublimation of Iodine
Sublimination without the dry ice
Fire pistons
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination
Catalytic copper
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination
Magic metal
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination
Going for Gold!
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination
Ethyne and flying food cans
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination
Chirality in sugars
A simple, effective chiral molecule experiment
Dissolving copper in nitric acid
The dramatic reaction between copper and nitric acid ought to be seen
Burning magnesium in dry ice
A dramatic and beautiful demonstration
Floating Gas Bubbles
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination
The bizarre oscillating redox reaction between mercury and iron
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination
Exploding soap bubbles
Soap bubbles containing a mixture of oxygen and methane can be used to produce spectacular explosions and impressive shock-waves that will always please
The ammonia fountain
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination
Nitrogen triiodide - a sensitive, contact explosive
Create a beautiful cloud of vapour mixed and gas with this safe contact explosive demonstration
Chemiluminescence - the oxidation of luminol
Light without heat
Soap from bacon - the dangers of alkaline solutions
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination
Platinum-catalysed oxidation of ammonia
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination
Carbon monoxide
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination
The reaction between aluminium and bromine
A spectacular demonstration performed in a glass jar
Displacement reaction of silver nitrate and copper metal
Watch silver crystals grow in this captivating experiment
Copper sulfide
A demonstration with some fantastic chemistry
Explosive nitrated carbon compounds
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination
Decomposing hydrogen peroxide with blood
Mixing hydrogen peroxide with blood to produce a foam explosive
The dehydration of sucrose
Create a smoking column of carbon
Making ethyne | demonstration
Preparing ethyne and testing its properties
Fluorescence
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination
A spectacular reversible reaction
A demonstration with a dramatic colour change
Traffic lights
An exciting gateway to a full-scale kinetic investigation