Here we enter into the really big (and dangerous) experiments of the chapter “The Super Secret Teachers Only Section”. As a reminder, do NOT do these experiments. During this chapter, I will not name all of the materials for safety reasons. My mother is behind the camera supervising me the whole time.
This one I did at my 13th birthday party with my good friends (because its kid-friendly). Take a look at the picture for a moment.
This is a 1-liter bottle and the solution at the bottom has red food coloring, a couple squirts of dish soap, and a very low concentration of hydrogen peroxide. I made this solution using gloves because hydrogen peroxide is very caustic. I have a little bit lower concentration then the experiment called for. So low, it’s safe to touch, but I STILL used gloves for safety.
The next step is to make my catalyst. I put my catalyst in some warm water and mixed it well.
After it was thoroughly dissolved, I poured the catalyst in the solution in my bottle. Let’s see what amazing reaction took place!
It took a second to happen but once it did……
Look at that bubbly volcano of AWESOMENESS!!!
Really cool looking right??
But what is happening? Well, the hydrogen peroxide is made of hydrogen and oxygen, H2O2. Hydrogen Peroxide naturally breaks down into hydrogen and oxygen, but this breakdown of the chemical is VERY slow. Do you know what a catalyst is? It is a chemical that speeds up the reaction of another chemical. So when we added the catalyst, it sped up the breakdown of the hydrogen and oxygen molecules significantly. Thus, the gas that was being rapidly produced was captured by the soap, making tons of tiny bubbles that ended up as a colorful soapy reaction. All that is in those bubbles is oxygen, so (for this low of a concentration of H2O2) it is safe to touch.
Do you see that I am touching the bottle in that last picture? It is because it’s warm! Not only does the reaction produce a bunch of gas, it also produces a lot of energy. This is an exothermic reaction!
This was fun wasn’t it? The WOW-rating was an 7 1/2! I would do this over and over!!
This was the “Kid-friendly” version of exploding toothpaste. Next time we will explore this experiment again but the concentration of the hydrogen peroxide will be 9 TIMES the concentration of this one!
Stay tuned!!
