Chemical Balloon Inflator - English

Friends today we will learn a very interesting chemistry experiment using very simple chemicals which are readily available in our kitchens.

We need vinegar, baking soda, a good quality plastic bottle and a balloon.

Fill about a table spoon full of baking soda in the balloon. Pour about 30 millilitres of vinegar in the plastic bottle. Now, attach the balloon to the bottle as shown. Now slowly invert the balloon so that the baking soda and vinegar is mixed.

You’ll notice lot of effervescence on top of the solution and the balloon is inflated with some gas.

Let’s take a look at the chemical reaction that is taking place. Vinegar is a dilute solution of Acetic acid whereas Baking soda is Sodium bicarbonate which is alkaline in nature. Mixing these two chemicals is an example of acid-base neutralization reaction. Usually neutralization reactions produce salt and water. But in this reaction, there is another byproduct which is a gas.

Mixing of acetic acid and sodium bicarbonate produces sodium acetate and carbonic acid. Carbonic acid is made when carbon dioxide reacts with water. Thus carbon dioxide gas is produced when the unstable carbonic acid splits into its components i.e. water and Co2 which inflates the balloon. Carbon dioxide is a colorless and odorless gas and this balloon experiment allows us to see this gas being produced.

Carbonic acid is present in carbonated drinks such as soda or soft drinks which releases CO2 gas when the bottle is opened. CO2 gas is non-combustible so it is used in fire extinguishers. Sodium acetate crystalizes very quickly and is used in hand warmers which are used in very cold regions.

I hope you enjoyed this experiment and learnt something new. For more such fun with hands-on science and math’s activities please visit our YouTube channel IISER Pune science activity centre.

Have fun!

Team: Ashok Rupner, Chaitanya Mungi, Shraddha Bhurkunde, Neha Apte, Sandeep Jadhav