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K-12 Education

Chemistry In Pictures

Chemistry in Pictures: The littlest chemistree?

by Manny I. Fox Morone
December 2, 2020

A tall triangle of copper with jagged, prickly whiskers of pure silver springing from the triangle's sides.
Credit: David Kangas

Chemistry in Pictures has seen its share of chemistrees, but this one may be the smallest. Standing just 4 mm tall, this prickly piece of copper is the product of a demo by David Kangas, an instructor at Charles Wright Academy in University Place, Washington. The demo’s steps are simple: put a flat piece of copper on a glass slide, put a cover slip on top of that, and let a few drops of 0.2 M silver nitrate placed nearby bleed under the cover slip onto the copper. The classic demo shows the single replacement reaction of silver ions in solution with copper atoms, leaving behind the whiskers of silver metal that surround this tiny chemistree.

Submitted by David Kangas

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