In another thread, we were talking about using sodium bicarbonate (bicarbonate of soda) solution for neutralizing eZest (which contains sulfuric acid). I thought I remembered playing around with it, so I repeated it and took photos. I took two cent coins and put them in a 5-10% sodium bicarbonate solution, and as an afterthought, put two more cents and a token in a 5-10% sodium sulfite solution. After 1 1/2 days, here are the solutions: The two cents in the sodium bicarbonate solution had caused it to turn a blue color signifying the reaction of the copper to form a copper salt. Although the sodium sulfite solution remained colorless, there is some weird floating debris... Here are the two cents in the sodium bicarbonate solution - before-after And from the sodium sulfite solution in similar fashion... I am an organic chemist and can't reeeeeeeeeeeally explain this, but look at the results! I gotta think about this. The only thing I am fairly sure of is a short immersion or dip or rinse with either of these solutions is probably not harmful, however lengthy soaking seems not to be a good thing!
Oh, and in the Recent Topics list, your post shows as "So, how about sodium..." and I figured we had another suggestion for "even worse coin compositions than copper-plated zinc". Wonder if I could figure out a way to plate copper onto a sodium disc...
I think you are mad scientist who has way too much time on hand and is without proper funding and mission statement. I at first thought you had put 2 pennies into the cup on the left and ended up with three. Then I had another drink. All's good. Don't drink the blue Gatorade!!!
BTW, I hated (and still do) chemistry, both in high school and college. In fact my high school chem teacher blew the lab up one morning...had to evacuate the whole high school! The only time that chemistry was cool.
Have you tried dihydrogen monoxide?? How about acetic acid... Or maybe sodium chloride.... Combine all three with a penny.... and get a cleaned penny lol.
