Backyard Chemistry

It's not the end of backyard chemistry

Well, if you have visited my site at www.backyardchem.com recently, you may have noticed that I am far from my heydays of amateur experimentation which occurred in 2007. (More)

How to Survive Organic Chemistry Lab

As a chemistry major, I have had experience both taking and teaching undergraduate organic chemistry lab courses. I have noticed what it takes for a student to be successful in what can be a very stressful lab environment so I thought I would share my knowledge with you.

College has completely killed my lab time

Well, I'm attending a wonderful university, but no matter how remarkable the chemistry classes may be in the future, nothing will replace the lab. This quarter I am in an accelerated general chemistry class, which will most likely be extremely boring given that I know all of the material.

Sodium permanganate?

Sodium permanganate! Yes, it exists, but why doesn't anybody talk of it? I've always wondered this and I finally have myself a legitimate answer. And with this new knowledge, I may just be able to synthesize in my backyard. (More)

More Fun With Oxalic Acid: Synthesis of Sodium trioxalatoferrate(III) monohydrate

As always, you can view this experiment and many others at http://www.backyardchem.com

I decided to indulge in some coordination chemistry today! The oxalate ion is a strong ligand and bidentate to boot so it makes for some nice colorful salts when combined with various transition metals. I was reading about oxalic acid in a 19th century encyclopedia and came across a large section which was erroneously labeled as oxalate "double salts" (as opposed to "complex"). I spotted that oxalate ions coordinate with ferric ions to form emerald green salts. This sounded pretty cool and after some more research I had myself an experiment!

the trioxalatoferrate(III) ion

Backyard Cemistry

Hello All,

Today I am launching my own chemistry website entitled "Backyard Chemistry".

Current amateur experiments listed are:

• Synthesis of Pyrophoric Iron from Ferrous Oxalate
• Preparation of Pure Manganese Dioxide from Batteries
• Building a Ball Mill
• Recrystallization of Potassium Chlorate
• Chlorate Cell
• Synthesis of Sodium Acetate
• Modified LeBlanc Production of Potassium Carbonate
• Nitric Acid
• Bromine
• Sulfuric Acid

Enjoy!