Bleeding Hearts Experiment

In this Valentine’s Day special, Stacey Wheeler will demonstrate how to break some iron hearts with her Bleeding Hearts experiment!

You will need:

• 1g potassium thiocyanate
• 1ml 12M hydrochloric acid
• 1ml 30% hydrogen peroxide
• Reagent bottle to mix well
• 250ml beaker
• Glass rod
• Iron wire (shaped like a heart)

Method:

1. The iron wire, which can be a paper clip, needs to be sanded down with emery paper.
2. Make an iron heart out of the wire, and make sure you leave some wire to tie onto the glass rod.
3. Attach this to a glass rod.
4. Test that this will hang in the beaker without touching the sides and bottom (no reason other than it may move freely).
5. Measure out 100 mL of water and add to it 1 gram of potassium thiocyanate.
6. Add to it 1 mL of 12M hydrochloric acid.
7. Then add 1 mL of 30% hydrogen peroxide.
8. Shake up the solution until completely dissolved.
9. Pour the solution into a beaker.
10. Lower your heart into the solution.
11. Instantly the iron will appear to bleed as the chemicals dissolve the iron and produce iron thiocyanate that has a blood red colour.