08th November 2024
Chemistry Society Launch 2024
We launched our ChemSoc with a classic practical – creating silver fractals. This is done by electrolysing Tollen’s Reagent (a mixture of silver nitrate and ammonia) so that silver is deposited at the negative electrode. Chemistry is outlined below:
We also had the pleasure of some ESOL students from BHASVIC joining us as well as regular first and second year A-level chemistry students. We had trained them specially beforehand on general lab health and safety, the same as we do for all our students prior to them starting any practical work.
Below is Mamadou’s set-up so you can see the Tollen’s reagent in a petri dish with the wires attached to paperclips as the electrodes. The black substance is some excess silver oxide as described on the previous page.
A2 chemistry students Megan and Wes take care to get theirs set up just right. The paper clip electrode must only just touch the surface for the silver fractals to form – it’s very sensitive to this.
The silver fractals only form if the paperclip is only just touching the surface.
Jafer (L) and Zeko (R) check their solution quantities!
Bahara, Muhammad and Mohammed share a light-hearted moment as they prep their solutions!
At the end of the session our ESOL students were asked to give feedback, here are some of their thoughts.
Take a look at Lily's silver fractals video - this was taken in real time so you can see how the fractals develop.