Make your kids love chemistry with the DIY lemon volcano
Science surrounds us in our daily lives. We’ve got an experiment today that will demonstrate how citric acid reacts with carbon dioxide. It explains the chemical reaction that led to the birth of soda, and in turn, all the carbonated drinks we have now. We suggest that you first demonstrate the experiment for the kids. Once they are excited and curious, explain what happened, and how the concept is used in everyday soft drinks they are familiar with.
What you need for the lemon volcano
Everything you need may already be in the kitchen:
- 3 or 4 lemons
- 6 to 8 tea spoons of baking soda
- Food colouring of your choice
- 3 to 4 tea spoons of liquid dish washing soap or one dishwashing bar soap
- A plate with a rim or a bowl
- A fork
Get your child to choose the food colours, that will heighten the expectation around what is about to happen.
How to do the lemon volcano experiment
Here are the steps to making lemons erupt:
- Cut the lemons in half. Keep 2 halves aside, and put the others on the plate or bowl with the cut side facing up
- Poke the lemons with the fork and make holes in them
- Next, put droplets of food colouring on the lemons. If your kid wants it, you can use more than one colour on a lemon
- Coat the coloured lemons lightly with dishwashing soap
- Sprinkle one teaspoon of baking soda on each lemon, using the fork to make sure it penetrates into the lemon.
- The lemons erupt in popping coloured bubbles! To increase the reaction, squeeze the 2 unused lemon halves onto the lemon volcanoes, producing more coloured bubbles.
Now that your child is excited and happy, here comes the explanation.
What caused the lemon volcanoes to erupt?
Leon juice contains citric acid. This reacts with baking soda, i.e., sodium bicarbonate, to create carbon dioxide and sodium citrate. That is the cause of the fizzing. The dish soap makes the bubbles exaggerated.
Citric acid is often used in soft drinks as preservative and flavour. Using this reaction to create bubbly liquids was first done by Joseph Priestley in 18th century. Later, J.J. Schweppes used this invention in his company Schweppes to mass produce carbonated beverages, starting the journey of our carbonated soft drinks.