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Lab:Making silicon and silanes from sand
From Learn Chemistry Wiki
| Making silicon and silanes from sand |
|---|
| Lab overview Teacher notes (Demonstration only) |
| About this lab |
| Duration: 5-10 mins No. of parts: 2 RSC Practical Chemistry?: No |
| Help |
Magnesium and sand are heated together and silicon is produced by an exothermic reaction. The product is placed in acid to remove magnesium oxide and unreacted magnesium. Small amounts of silanes are produced by the reaction of magnesium silicide (a side product) with the acid. These react spontaneously with air to give spectacular but harmless small explosions.
This experiment should take around 5-10 minutes.
- Resources
- Student experiment; also available in PDF format
- Teacher and technician notes on the experiment; also available in PDF format
Reference
This experiment has been adapted from Classic Chemistry Demonstrations, Royal Society of Chemistry, London, p.127-129
