The Iodine Clock or Landolt Reaction
- Page ID
- 222027
Chemical Concepts Demonstrated
- Kinetics
- Concentration effects on reaction rate
Demonstration
The 5 beakers contain 4 solutions in varying amounts: | The solutions are poured into the beakers simultaneously. |
Beaker 5 contains the most amount of water and the least amount of KIO3 solution; Beaker 1 is the opposite. The remaining beakers are in a series relative to these two. | ![]() |
Observations
The beakers turn blue-black in a specific order.
Explanation (including important chemical equations)
This demonstration is based on the following mechanism:
1. IO3-(aq) + 3 HSO3-(aq) --> I -(aq) + 3 SO42-(aq) + 3 H+(aq)
2. IO3-(aq) + 5 I -(aq) + 6 H+(aq) --> 3 I2 (aq) + 3 H2O (l)
3. I2 (aq) + HSO3-(aq) + H2O (l) --> 2 I -(aq) + SO42-(aq) + 3 H+(aq)
4. I2 (aq) + I -(aq) + starch (aq) --> starch-I3-(aq)
Because steps 1 and 2 are much slower than step 3, no I2 accumulates as long as HSO3- remains in solution. When all of the HSO3- is consumed, I2 accumulates and the blue-black starch-triiodide complex is formed in step 4.
Contributors
- Dr. George Bodner (Perdue University)