Hazard: The thermite reaction can be very dangerous. It should only be attempted by an experienced chemistry demonstrator.

The thermite reaction involves a mixture of iron oxide and aluminum that has been placed in a flower pot. A sparkler is used to initiate the reaction. When the iron oxide-aluminum mixture is ignited, a very vigorous reaction occurs and a molten metal can be seen dropping from the flower pot into a bucket of sand below. The reaction is extremely exothermic, a great deal of heat is given off. When the product of the reaction is examined a large piece of white hot iron has fallen into the sand at the bottom of the apparatus. This illustrates that aluminum is an extremely strong reducing agent and also that this reaction is very highly exothermic.

Equation: Fe₂O₃ + 2Al Al₂O₃ + 2Fe
 

Chemistry Comes Alive! Volume 7 > Thermite

CCA! volumes are organized according to topics in chemistry. Some movies are included on more than one volume of CCA! because they can be used to demonstrate more than one topic or idea.
 

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