Chemists are Artists

by lucy, lucy, kiki, and gigi

Overall Plan:
● Make art pieces that bring awareness to
pollution
● Use a combustion reaction to
emphasize our point
First attempt: gunpowder art
● Plan:
○ Create a powder based off of
the chemical compound for
gunpowder
○ Arrange the powder on a
plank of untreated wood to
make a design
○ Burn the gunpowder to etch
the design into the wood
Step 1: gather ingredients
● Potassium Nitrate (75%),
Charcoal (15%), and Sulfur
(10%)
● First we massed all of the
chemicals
● Then we put each chemical into
sterilized beakers
Making the Gunpowder
We mixed the ingredients together with a mortar
and pestle to mirror the fine grain that is in
gunpowder.

10KNO3 + 8C + 3S 2K2CO3 + 3K2SO4 + 6CO2 +

5N2

Products: Potassium Carbonate, Aluminum

Potassium Sulfate, Carbon Dioxide, and Nitrogen.
Where it went wrong: creating the art
● The powder didn't burn smoothly
○ Burned in spurts and little
explosions all over
● Bigger explosion than expected
● Burned the entire plank of wood
● Smelled really bad
○ Sulfur
Second attempt: Ammonium Chloride
Decomposition Reaction
● Ammonium chloride decomposes into
ammonia gas and hydrochloric acid.
● NH4Cl NH3+HCl
● When heat is applied, the ammonia is
released into the atmosphere, leaving
behind the acid burning the wood.
The process
1. Paint the ammonium chloride
onto untreated wood with a
paintbrush
2. Heat with a heat gun on low
until the charred art shows
3. Let cool
Our concept: pollution and global warming
First plank: factory pollution

Second plank: deforestation

Third plank: marine debris

Final plank: earth on fire