Reaction Powered Car

Kenneth Huang

Michael Phan

Hien Nguyen

Reaction Chemistry 1) Vinegar + Baking Soda CH3COOH +H2O+ NaHCO3 2H2O +CO2(g)+NaCH3COO2) Hydrochloric Acid + Calcium Carbonate

2HCl+CaCO3 CaCl2 + H2O + CO2 (g)3) Hydrochloric Acid + Baking Soda

HCl + NaHCO3 NaCl + H2O + CO24) Sulfuric Acid + Baking Soda (FINAL)

H2SO4 + 2 NaHCO3 Na2SO4 + 2H2O+ 2CO2

Under 5 atm…moles of CO2 we need…

Mass of Baking soda we need (MAX)…

Volume of Sulfuric Acid we need…

1*1

42422

422 SOH mL 0040.0

SOH mol 17.8

L 1

CO mol 2

H mol 1 mol 145586.0

SOCO

Soda Baking g 2.12NaHCO mol 1

g 84

CO mol 2

NaHCO mol 2CO mol 145586.0

32

3

42422

422 SOH mL 0.0040

SOH mol 17.8

L 1

CO mol 2

SOH mol 1CO mol 145586.0

Method of Producing Gas1) Use the kimwipe to wrap around baking soda and

dump into the propel bottle.2) Use the kimwipe to pour on the side of the propel

bottle.3) Attempting to trap the gas in a graduated cylinder

in water and placing that pressure in the bottle. Pressure would push the water out of the graduated

cylinder and no pressure is collected4) Use the aluminum foil as a funnel to pour on the side

of the propel bottle. The foil had smooth surface unlike the kimwipe,

easier to pour in.

Car Design

•Light•Simple•Rectangular shape•4 wheel car•Use the zip tie to tie the propel bottle to the cae

•Propel bottle is parallel to the ground•Put the tape around the cap to prevent carbon dioxide from leaking

Car Design (cont.)

Data: Pre-competition test runs

Trial # H2SO4 (mL)

H2O (mL)

Baking Soda (g)

Distance Traveled (ft.)

Distance from 25ft (in)

Comments

1 6 25 10.998 26 Finger on cap now

2 6 25 10.957 10 Some reacted on the side

3 6 35 11.078 17 It turned around

4 6 20 10.980 22.5 Fixed the car, removed parts

5 6 20 11.219 27.5

Data: Reaction Car Competition

Trial # H2SO4 (mL) H2O (mL) Baking Soda (g)

Distance Traveled (ft.)

Distance from 25ft (in)

Comments

1 6 20 10.6 14

2 6 20 11.5 17.9 -85

3 6 25 11.3 35.6 +127

4 6 25 10.7 21

5 6 25 10.5 25 0

6 6 25 10.7 31.4 +77

7 6 25 10.0 20.5 -54

8 6 25 10.5 23.75 -15 Too much, spewing

9 6 10 10.5 14

10 6 7 11.9 8.5

Plot: NaHCO3 vs Distance

9.5 10 10.5 11 11.5 12 12.50

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40Rxn Car Competition Plot

Baking Soda (g)

Dis

tan

ce (

ft)

Data: Car competition FINALS

Trial # H2SO4 (mL)

H2O (mL)

Baking Soda (g)

Distance Traveled (ft.)

Distance from 25ft (in)

Comments

1 6 20 10.1 -143 Kenneth didn’t unscrew cap all the way

2 6 20 10.1 0 -300 Kenneth pushed the car to the side

3 6 20 10.1 -5 Hien did this one

Conclusion•Our car did very well overall. We placed 2nd in our lab class in the Reaction Car Competition and placed 1st in the finals by getting the closest distance to 25 ft (+5 inches)•Our car did not completely spew like many other design, however the exhaust was not completely gaseous either. It has hard for Dr. Skip to judge the “spewness” of our car because we were right on the borderline between spew and no spew.•Multiple test runs allowed us to narrow down how much baking soda was needed to power the car to 25 feet•REDESIGN IDEAS: The one problem we had throughout the project was making the car go in a straight path consistently. Even during the final competition, we were still mingling with the car design to try and make it go in a straight path. If we were to redesign, our car would have bigger wheels and wider frame to provide more stability.