Sodium Acetate - Technical

Products Description

How to make sodium acetate for dry ice

What you need to do is saturate water with sodium acetate at a high temperature. There are 2 ways of getting this.

1. Heat water to about 60°C, then add sodium acetate until it will no longer dissolve. Pour the liquid into a vessel, making sure you DO NOT transfer any solid into the vessel. Stick the solution into the fridge until it is cooled to fridge temperature, or even room temperature. At this point, the solution is supercooled, and any trigger can induce crystallization.
2. Make a saturated solution of sodium acetate at room temperature (i.e. add acetate until you are left with an undissolved layer). Heat the solution to 60°C, which causes the remainder to dissolve. Once the solution is completely clear, pour it into a vessel and stick it in the fridge, as in method 1.

Method 1 will give you more crystals when touched, but any solid transferred will ruin the experiment. Method 2 will always work, but generates less crystals.

There are no other specifics. You need to make a supersaturated solution, and can not transfer any solid material from the saturate.

How to Make Hot Ice With Sodium Acetate

Things You'll Need:

• Sodium acetate
• Small sauce pan
• Water

1. Fill a small sauce pan will water and heat it until it is near boiling. Boiling is too hot, but a small amount of simmering is okay. The main thing is to make the water hot.
2. Dissolve as much sodium acetate into the water as possible. The more you dissolve into the water, the more dense the crystals will be when they form the hot ice. Keep stirring in as much as possible until you can no longer get the sodium acetate to dissolve in the water. It is important to stir the mixture constantly at this stage.
3. Know that when the mixture is completely dissolved, pour it into a glass or other container. Make sure to only pour the water with dissolved sodium acetate into the glass. If any sodium acetate remains undissolved, leave it in the bottom of the pan as you pour.
4. Place the glass in your refrigerator to allow the water to cool.
5. Be aware that after the mixture has cooled, pour some into a tray, mold or whatever container you wish to hold the hot ice. As you pour it into the tray, note that it remains in liquid form.
6. Just touching the solution will not instigate the reaction, you must introduce a ‘seed’ crystal. To do this, lightly moisten your fingertip so a couple of dry/un-dissolved crystals will stick there, now you’re ready to ‘touch’ the solution. Touch the top of the liquid with the tip of your finger. You do not need to dip your finger or hold it on the liquid. Just a quick tap is all that is needed. Hot ice crystals will instantly form where you touch and will spread through the mixture until every drop of liquid is in a frozen but hot crystalline state. In just one second you will have hot ice.

A great link for a video on making Hot Ice Make Hot Ice Instructions