Sugar Dehydration without Sulfuric Acid: No More Choking Fumes in the Classroom!

Abstract

Sugar is a common reagent often used in colorful classroom demonstrations. It produces a growing column of black ash when dehydrated by concentrated sulfuric acid, and it produces a brilliant purple flame when combusted with potassium chlorate. Unfortunately, both of these reactions also produce copious quantities of noxious fumes which make them problematic as lecture demonstrations. We have modified and combined these two reactions. Our demonstration uses no sulfuric acid, yields relatively little smoke, and produces an exciting and unpredictable growing column of black carbon.