Michael Helbock Rocco Nguyen Preston Pallante

Chemical Car Project

Reaction Chemistry

3 lemons in series as well as 3 lemons in parallel

Produced over 3 and a half volts but only 0.8 amps. The motor needed at least 1 amp to run.

Reaction Chemistry

This demonstrates the Carbon Dioxide gas propelling the propel bottle which was strapped to the car, in the form of thrust.

Reaction Chemistry1. Double Replacement Reaction

2NaHCO3+H2SO4→2H2O+Na2SO4+2CO2

•Builds Carbon Dioxide pressure in propel bottle used to produce thrust as the gas is released.

2. Oxidation Reduction Reaction

Anode- Zinc is oxidized, which gives off two Zn→Zn2+

+2e-

Cathode- Copper, where Hydrogen from the lemon acid is reduced to form molecular Hydrogen. 2H++2e-→H2

•Produces electricity, which can be used to power a small motor.

Test Results

Trial

Distance Atmospheres

1 48

feet 3.7

2 28 feet 5

inches 3.3

3 20 feet 10

inches 3.3

4 15 feet 3.2

5 15 feet 3.2

1 2 3 4 50

10

20

30

40

50

60

Chemical Car Results

Distance Atmospheres

Trials

Dis

tance (

Feet)

Balanced Equation2NaHCO3+H2SO4 2CO2 + 2H2O + Na2SO4

The Limiting Reactant

Using Density to Find Grams of H2SO4

Volume H2SO4 = 7 mL

Density H2SO4 = 1.84

Mass = (1.84)(7 ml) = 12.8 grams H2SO4

Amount of CO2 Produced

Using Ideal Gas Law to determine how much ATP produced in a 700 mL (0.7L)pv = nRT

R = Gas Constant @ 20°C (293K)

R= 0.08205

p =

Example of Calculation

Conclusion The car was composed of 4 wheels across a long but narrow wheel base.

Our goal was to find something light, yet stable. After a couple of experiments, this design seemed to produce successful results. The Propel bottle was strapped completely level but sideways to the car with a rubber band.

We used the Double Replacement reaction of Sulfuric Acid and Baking Soda to produce Carbon Dioxide. This product then built up in the 700 ml propel bottle to nearly 4 atmospheres. This was too much pressure as our first run went nearly 48 feet. We then toned town the pressure to 3.3 atmospheres and seemed to find our mark as we went 40 inches over 25 feet. The next run was 50 inches short of 25 feet.

Earlier in the experiment we decided to try producing electricity from lemons. We used Zinc as our Anode and Copper as our Cathode. It was worth a shot but couldn’t quite come up successful as it only produced 3.5 volts and 0.8 amps. This was just short of the 1 amp, which was needed to power the motor. We hooked 3 lemons up in series along with 3 more lemons in parallel off of the lemons in series. The 4 hours we spent on the Lemon experiment as frustrating but it taught us a lot.

Re-Design Ideas

Due to the large portion of time spent trying to make a successful Lemon powered car, we were not able to run enough practice trials to get precise reactant measurements. If the experiment could be ran again, more time would be put into improving the precision of the car. This means more practice trials would be ran in order to collect enough data to come up with better measurements, to yield the 25 foot goal.

Also, the valve, which was integrated into the lid, seemed to be ineffective. Sometimes pressure would leak out when the person holding it was trying to set it on the starting line. Using something such as a material that would break under a certain amount of pressure would have been a good consideration.