Flame Test Lab Fizzles Out

Today I was so excited that I had remembered to bring my old Coke cans from home to use as flame-resistant receptacles for the flame test lab. Then, I used my hand pocket knife (that I’m pretty sure I couldn’t live without) to cut in half so I could use them as bowls that wouldn’t crack or melt. I then realized that I didn’t have any matches, so I went to the little hut outside the school grounds (I’m going to have to take a picture of this place because it seriously looks like it has nothing, but it’s come through for me multiple times now!) and purchased 6 packages for 30 cents. Then, I found some chemicals that would work to give some pretty flame colors and found the big bottle of ethanol. I thought for sure that I’d conquered all the challenges and was ready for the lab to be successful because I’d done this same lab nearly 10 times! Never underestimate the challenges in doing lab in Nigeria! J

I described the procedure, since I now balk at the idea of a lab handout, for making a 50% water 50% ethanol solution in the bottom of the can and adding their salt. They were then instructed to light the solution on fire and record the flame color. The kids did all of this and went to light it on fire (I was cringing and dying on the inside that they were going to be doing this without goggles on.) but it didn’t light. Now, I was certain that I’d used a 50/50 mixture last year when I demonstrated this method in AP Chemistry because we needed the water to help dissolve the salt, but I thought that maybe the water was causing the problem, so I had them start over and use all ethanol and their salt. Ethanol, the chemical that has “Highly Flammable” warnings on its label, extinguished the match as if it were being placed into water. Ethanol, the volatile chemical that is used as a fuel additive because of its combustion properties, didn’t even spark once in the consumption of nearly 3 entire boxes of matches. We probably could have stopped trying before consuming so many matches, but I was so incredulous that ethanol wasn’t producing a flame that I allowed attempts to continue past the prudent stopping point.

Grrrr…I was frustrated and dejected. I went to complain to Dajah and verify with another chemist that ethanol is in fact flammable, and this was crazy! After he chucked at my distress and disbelief and assured me that ethanol is combustible in air and told me (Iowa girl) that it’s used as a fuel additive, he told me that it must not be ethanol that I was using. I emphatically told him that I checked the bottle multiple times and it was ethanol! He then explained to me that there are many corrupt business people who simply put clear liquids in bottles and place fraudulent labels on them in order to sell them for money. Oh my goodness! He said that in the 3 years that he’d been the chemistry teacher he’d never used the ethanol to know that it was bad. After evaluating the lid that didn’t actually form any semblance of a seal, I became further convinced that it wasn’t ethanol since it had been around for 3 years and hadn’t completely evaporated in an essentially open container.

So, we started to discuss alternatives for the practicals on Friday. I asked him if one could buy vodka here (as it is an excellent source of ethanol). He had never heard of vodka and his pronunciation made me giggle. It was quite the turn of events to have me trying to explain a type of alcohol to someone! We left school with him promising to buy some gin and me in search of rubbing alcohol at a pharmacy (drug store). I definitely checked in no less than 8 different stores looking for rubbing alcohol using as many names and descriptors as possible to no avail. I think maybe 3 of them really knew what rubbing alcohol was but I visually search all 8 of these small 8’x 8’ stores and there was no alcohol to be found, but this one woman did show me this juice that may have been alcoholic, but it was imported from France and I know even less French than I do Hausa, so I gave up uncertain of what it was but certain that it wasn’t rubbing alcohol. I hoped that Daja would do better with the gin!

Unfortunately, the store was closed, so no gin. After more thought, I decided that we could maybe dip sticks (that they created by pounding branches with rocks) into kerosene, coat them with the salts and then light them on fire. So, with 1 film canister of kerosene we were able to get fire! Alas, the chemicals that I thought would be good really all produced orange flames except for the copper sulfate which was my redeeming blue flame. They were definitely not convinced that this lab is the “best lab ever!” but can’t fault me for lack of effort!