Today I experimented with baking soda and vinegar to create floating bubbles. For this lab, I only needed baking soda, vinegar, bubble mix, and a bowl to hold everything.
The purpose of this lab was very straight-forward. Mixing baking soda (NaHCO3) and vinegar (HCH3COO) creates "fizzing". This fizzing is the chemical reaction of carbon dioxide gas being created. The equation for this reaction is NaHCO3 + HC2H3O2 → NaC2H3O2 + H2O + CO2. This means baking soda reacts with vinegar to produce sodium acetate, water, and carbon dioxide. This chemical reaction is an acid based reaction, meaning the baking soda acts as the base and the vinegar acts as the acid. Mixing these two elements together creates a new compound since the baking soda wants to give electrons (oxidation) and the vinegar wants to take electrons (reduction), which in this case is carbonic acid that then decomposes into the water and releases carbon dioxide into the air. Carbon dioxide is slightly heavier than the air we breathe because it is a combination of nitrogen and oxygen. The bubbles blown onto the fizzing mixture float because there is a layer of carbon dioxide air that the baking soda and vinegar created. Below is the video of this lab.
In the video, you can see the chemical reaction of the baking soda and vinegar, but the bubbles do not float above the mix as intended. During this lab, the bubbles either popped on contact, or sat on the surface of the mix. Sadly, the lab did not work the way I intended. I think if I was able to do this lab again, I would blow bubbles as soon as I mixed the baking soda and vinegar together. I recorded the reaction process too long and should've taken advantage of the fizzing right away. Overall, I found it interesting to watch the baking soda and vinegar react with each other, but I was disappointed I wasn't able to watch the bubbles float.