Place 500 cm3 of the ammonium metavanadate solution in a 1 dm3 conical flask and add about 15 g of powdered zinc. This will effervesce and give off hydrogen on reaction with the acid.
The solution will immediately start to go green and within a few seconds will turn pale blue, the colour of the VO2+(aq) ion in which the vanadium has an oxidation number of +4. The short-lived green colour is a mixture of the yellow of VV and the blue of VIV. The blue colour of VO2+ is similar to that of the Cu2+(aq) ion. Over a further fifteen minutes or so, the colour of the solution changes first to the green of V3+(aq) ions and eventually to the mauve of V2+(aq) ions. The green of V3+(aq) is the most difficult to distinguish.
If desired, decant off a little of the solution at each colour stage, filter it to remove zinc and stop the reaction and place in a petri dish on the overhead projector to show the colour more clearly.
When the reaction has reached the mauve stage, filter off a little of the solution into a boiling tube and add acidified potassium permanganate solution dropwise. This will re-oxidise the vanadium through the +3 and +4 oxidation states back to VV. Take care with the final few drops to avoid masking the yellow colour of vanadium(V) with the purple of permanganate ions.
A white background is vital if the colour changes are to be clearly seen.
If desired, prepare solutions containing VIV and VIII beforehand for comparison.
This is recommended for teachers who are not familiar with these colours. This can be done as follows.
VIV: take a little of the original ammonium metavanadate solution in a test-tube and add approximately 1 mol dm–3 sodium thiosulphate solution dropwise until no further colour change occurs and a light blue solution is obtained. If too much thiosulphate is added, the solution will gradually go cloudy due to the formation of colloidal sulphur by reaction of the excess thiosulphate with acid but this will not affect the blue colour of VIV.
V III: take a little of the original ammonium metavanadate solution in a test-tube and add a spatula-full of powdered tin. Leave this for about five minutes and then filter off the tin to leave a green solution containing V3+(aq) ions.
This demonstration can be used as an introduction to the idea that different oxidation states of transition metal ions often have different colours and that electrode potentials can be used to help predict the course of redox reactions (via the ‘anti- clockwise rule’ or otherwise). While waiting for the reaction to go to completion, some of the reactions can be discussed.
The demonstration