Summary
Blow through a straw into bluish liquid and watch it turn green then yellow before your eyes. Put some plants into the yellow liquid, leave it in a sunny window, come back the next day and the liquid is green. What if you leave the plants in the dark? What if you put some pond snails in? What if you put both pond snails and plants? What’s going on?
The liquid is bromthymol blue (BTB) a non-toxic acid-base indicator that can be used to indirectly measure levels of dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2). The amount of CO2 in a solution changes the pH. An increase in CO2 makes a solution more acidic (the pH gets lower). A decrease in CO2 makes a solution more basic (the pH gets higher). The reason for this is that carbon dioxide that is dissolved in water is in equilibrium with carbonic acid (H2CO3).
CO2 + H2O ↔ H2CO3
In any solution, while the majority of CO2 stays as CO2, some of it is converted to H2CO3, turning the solution slightly acidic. If CO2 is added to the water, the level of H2CO3 will rise and the solution will become more acidic. If CO2 is removed from the water, the amount of H2CO3 falls and the solution becomes more basic. Thus, acid-base indicators such as BTB can indirectly measure the amount of CO2 in a solution.
For more than you ever wanted to know about carbonic acid, see the Wikipedia article on carbonic acid. For the example lesson plans developed by Bob Culler through Access Excellence at the National Health Museum. For a great time lapse video showing BTB color changes using elodea and snails, see Activity C13 from Addison-Wesley’s Science 10 curriculum.
Materials
Procedure
BTB solution | Living things |
Light conditions |
bubbled BTB (yellow) | spring of Elodea | Sunny window/bright light |
unbubbled BTB (blue) | 5 pond snails | Dark closet/drak heavy cloth |
both Elodea and 5 pond snails |
Going Further
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
bromthymol_blue.doc | 20.5 KB |
colorful_respiration.doc | 38.5 KB |