Bath bombs and chromatography
Chemistry Week
Stephen Wilks from the RSC Bristol and District Section organised a chemistry stall at Whiteladies Farmers Market in Bristol, as part of Chemistry Week.
I wanted to participate in Chemistry Week, and, after consultation with education coordinator Beth Anderson, I decided to revisit the tried and tested bath bomb format, which Beth and I had successfully done before.
Beth has this demonstration down to a fine art, and we devoted half of our stand to it, using essential oils such as lavender, lemon, orange and geranium. We only used natural colours, and we didn’t use glitter, for environmental reasons.
As a variation on previous events, we decided to wrap the finished bath bomb in cling film and make it into a sugar twist. This nearly came to grief when we ran out of cling film, but Beth saved the day by rushing to the supermarket for new supplies.
We dedicated the second half of our stand to chromatography. Visitors put a spot from a felt pen or a natural or artificial dye on a piece of filter paper and added a drop of water to the spot. The colour was allowed to separate out and dry, and we gave the resulting chromatogram to the visitor to keep.
Throughout the morning, the committee volunteers Ian, Beth and John worked tirelessly to help and answer questions from members of the public. They also helped with the health and safety aspects, ensuring everyone participating received goggles, gloves, aprons and wet wipes.
I cannot thank enough the local committee volunteers who helped deliver a well presented stand that appealed to a wide age group – from the under 5s to adults. We counted over 30 people on a very chilly November day who all enjoyed their experience. Most were interested that every day household products could make useful products for the home, and that they could achieve interesting colour separation with the chromatography provided.
In conclusion, I felt we provided an interesting Chemistry Week stand and demonstrated through public participation how chemistry interacts with our everyday lives.
Chemistry Week
Chemistry Week is an annual celebration of the chemical sciences, centred around our members sharing their passion with public audiences. In 2017 it took place from 20–26 November, and the theme was 'Global Science'. Members were able to apply for grants from our Outreach Fund to organise activities.
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