Chemical Reaction Between Potassium Permanganate and Citric Acid

Image courtesy: 23b-cthruchemistry.blogspot.com

Hello friends, I am back with my 9th instructable. This time I am playing with chemicals. We are going to do a reaction with Potassium Permanganate and Citric Acid. The reaction will be hydrolysis reaction because salt (Potassium Permanganate) and Water are getting reacted together. The citric acid is working as a catalyst.

I got the idea when I've seen a video of potassium permanganate is added to water and immediately the water gets purple. I thought what if I add citric acid to it? And Voila! this purple water gets converted from purple to red then orange then yellow then fully transparent yellow. Enough talk, lets do it!

Video of reaction(Time Lapse):

Step 1: Things You Will Need

1. Beaker (250 ml or higher) - 6.30 $
2. Potassium Permanganate - 8.95 $
3. Citric Acid crystals or liquid (You can also use lemon, orange, sweet lime, etc) - 6.95 $
4. Plastic Spoon - Free
5. Water - Free

Total = 22 $

Step 2: Adding and Heating Citric Acid Crystals

Add 100 ml of water in a beaker. Add citric acid. If you are using crystals then heat it a little bit for around 10 second. This will make the crystals disolve better. Using liquid will do the reaction a little bit faster so use liquid if you can. Use plastic spoon to mix it.

Step 3: Adding Potassium Permanganate

Add about 2 grams of Potassium Permanganate to the beaker and stir it periodically. Minute by minute it color gets lighter and brighter. At the end, you can even see through!

Chemical reaction as shown by Kymyst :