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Society for Amateur Scientists

Make Your Own Carbon Rods with Sucrose and Sulfuric Acid

by Charles Burgess

This is a very interesting reaction that allows you to produce solid carbon in controllable densities and porosities for a multitude of experimental uses in electrochemistry and materials research.

Supplies needed:

• Pure white cane sugar -- sucrose
• Concentrated sulfuric acid -- you can take a quart or gallon of battery acid that is available from auto parts suppliers; and gently heat it to evaporate the water; check pH
• A 500ml beaker or glass quart mason jar

Instructions:

Put a few ounces of sucrose in the glass jar. When the sulfuric acid is added, the resulting chemical reaction will turn the sucrose into pure carbon and water vapor. If you add the acid suddenly, then the carbon will expand dramatically and result in a very porous solid, but by slowly adding the acid you can control the volume and density of the solid carbon.

If you pack some sucrose into a glass tube and then slowly add the sulfuric acid you can then push the resulting carbon rod out of the tube and trim to the desired size. If desired, you can even embed a wire lead into the sucrose before initiating the reaction.

By introducing specific impurities you can also alter the characteristics of the resulting solid. As you can imagine, you can make solid carbon of any desired dimension and size.

Safety concerns:

Be very careful in heating the sulfuric acid to increase its concentration. gentle heat is the key. Wear safety goggles, latex gloves, and a lab coat.

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