As  my first chemistry post, I will show you how to make a very interesting iron chemical - the Ferrate ion ([FeO4]2-). It contains 4 oxygen and 1 iron ion. Why is this special? Well, it's iron in the +6 oxidation state(this is number of bonds this chemical has). Regular every day iron rust is +3 oxidation state, so 3 extra bonds is alot! 

   What makes this special to me is it's pink-purple color. You never see iron compounds look pink, they are all the dirty-orange chemical. For those of you interested in its chemical structure, here's it:(iron = Fe, oxygen = O, the minus ions hook up to a alkali metal.)

       

Now I will show you how to make your own, Sodium ferrate. Now first, I have to warn you that SAFETY IS FIRST!!!! Strong bases such as drain cleaner are used in this experiment, and they HURT. Wear proper gloves and/or face shield clothes during this experiment. I DO NOT take responsibility if you get injured by carelessly handling drain cleaner. 

    Sodium ferrate is basically two sodium ions carrying a positive charge hooked up to each of the negatives on the ferrate ion. You will need the follwing items to make this compound:

• A strong base to keep the complex stable, such as beaded drain cleaner, NOT liquid(Sodium Hydroxide) 
• A water-soluble iron compound such as iron (3+) chloride (pcb etchant) to oxidize
• A oxidizer, such as bleach(sodium hypochlorite)

Here are the steps:

1.  React the sodium hydroxide(or your strong base) with your iron (3+) compound. Dissolve as much drain cleaner as you can in the iron(3+) compound, as you need more towards the upcomming reaction. This should form a brown-ish gel-like precipitate. This is the brown stuff that accumulated in the bottom of my test tube photo. What has happened: the Fe3+ gets  3 hydroxide (OH-) ions, combining to form Fe(OH)3. This is not soluble in water, so it comes out as a gel. (FeCl3 + 3NaOH = Fe(OH)3 + NaCl)
2.  Pour some bleach on the precipitate. This will oxidize the Fe3+ to Fe6+. For maximum yield, heat up the mixture, preferrably on a Bunsen burner. Fun Fact: Bleach is basically table salt plus an extra oxygen molecule! What has happened: Since bleach has a extra oxygen molecule than salt, we can make use of it in this reaction to oxidize Iron 3+ to Iron 6+. The extra sodium ions in sodium hydroxide(drain cleaner) supply the alkali metal ions to hook up to the [FeO4]2- complex. (2 Fe(OH)
   3 + 3 NaOCl + 4 NaOH → 2 Na2[FeO
   4]
    + 5 H
   2O + 3 NaCl
3.  Wait about a day to settle the chemicals. A successful reaction creates a bright pink to light purple  liquid like mine's on the first pict. If your liquid is colorless, you may want to add more base(drain cleaner) to the reaction  vessel until you cannot dissolve it anymore.

Unfortunately, this complex is unstable and may die out in a couple days. To stablize this compound, add barium ions to this complex, preferrably barium chloride. Since many barium compounds are insoluble in water, this forces the complex out of water and turns it into the solid barium ferrate. As long it isn't in strong acid, this compound will be stable.

Why choose Arduino?

• Arduino is cheap: only $30. Other controllers like NXT are well over ~$200
• Arduino is free software: unlike other microprocessors, you have to buy the chip to get a copy of the software
• Arduino is cross platform, you can use it on all Windows, Mac and Linux. Others like Basic Stamp only work on Windows.
• Arduino's code is straightforward: just digitalWrite(pin, value) to control a digital pin, no complex bit-shifting and bitwise programming required
• Arduino is new tech: Arduino Uno released in 2011

Welcome to Patrick Yu's blog!

   I am a middle school programmer and chemist. This blog will be dedicated to computer programming/coding, arduino, and robotic stuff. I also have an intrest in chemistry, so there will also be updates about chemistry.