Chemistry and Art

The disappearing rainbow¹ is a wonderful chemistry demonstration previously featured here on ChemEdX.^2-4 In this experiment, a colorless solution of NaOH is poured into a row of flasks, each containing a different acid–base indicator.

Dean Campbell*, Ali Patel, Kathryn Campbell *Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois

Josh Kenney, Melissa Hemling, and I just published an article in the October 2024 Journal of Chemical Education. The article describes inquiry-based activities that highlight the chemistry behind “No-Mess” picture-coloring books.¹ Well, it turns out that our timing is impeccable.

A variety of interesting coloring books are available on the market that use water as a coloring agent.¹ When water is applied to the pages of these books, colors seem to appear like magic. When the water evaporates, the colors disappear. This allows the pages of these books to be colored over and over again.

About a decade ago, I wrote briefly about the interesting experiment of throwing boiling hot water into air that is below -18°C (0°F) (see Ice Clouds).

The inaugural ChemEd X Journal Club Meeting was held virtually on April 7, 2022 to discuss the article, "Curricular Materials on the Chemistry of Pottery, Including Thermodynamic Calculations for Redox Reactions in the 3-Stage Firing Process of Athenian Black- and Red-Figure Vases Produced from the Sixth-Fourth Centuries BCE" (Journal of Chemical

Have you seen the rainbow candy experiment? It's a very simple experiment that involves pouring water into a plate that has M&M's candies or Skittles arranged in a pattern. Very curious shapes of sharply divided regions form spontaneously. How does this happen?! 

One of my favorite chemistry demonstrations is the “Copper to Silver to Gold” experiment¹ (VIDEO 1), in which a penny is first plated with zinc and then heated to form brass, an alloy of copper and zinc. The heat causes zinc to diffuse into the copper in the penny. The zinc plate imparts a beautiful silver color to the penny.

Deanna Cullen, Scott Milam, Doug Ragan, and I recently published an article, Rapid Formation of Copper Patinas: A Simple Chemical Demonstration of Why the Statue of Liberty Is Green, in the Journal of Chemical Education¹ that describes how to create a blue-green