52/54 Vanishing Peanuts

Didn’t you just love sticking your arm in the box full of packing peanuts when you were a kid? I did! But I think I just found a new way to enjoy the existence of packing peanuts!! I had two bowls full of water and two kinds of packing peanuts- Styrofoam and starch-based. I took a hand full of the Styrofoam and set it in the water.

 

After I had push and pinched the pieces.. nothing exciting happened. So I moved on to the starch-based packing peanuts and did the same thing but this time was different- it seemed that these corn-made packing peanuts started to break down.

With further peanut dipping, they turned into this green, gooey shlump (yes, shlump).

Ok, so obviously we can break down these starch-based peanuts with water. But what about Styrofoam?

That’s where this experiment turns into the “Super Secret Teachers Only” section. One ingredient- Acetone.

With gloves, I carefully poured a small amount of acetone into my beaker. Then I threw in a handful of Styrofoam!

 

I literally threw in a handful of peanuts in the beaker and it was gone within seconds!! It bubbled and fizzed like it was in a movie. But I could not stop there, I cut a strip of insulation and…..

 

This is all on one little amount of acetone!! It was like it was bigger on the inside!!

What was really happening was the acetone was breaking down the elements in the Styrofoam into its original polystyrene form of the polymer.  More companies these days are turning to the starch-based peanuts because they break down in water so they are more environmentally friendly.

WOW-rating is a 7! I really enjoyed it. And I remembered something very annoying about packing peanuts…….

Static electricity.

Guys we are a mere 2 experiments away from finishing!! This is crazy but we will have so much fun finishing up.

 

 

 

51/54 Exploding Toothpaste- Adult Version!

Remember the last experiment where we used a very low concentration of hydrogen peroxide to make that fun bubbly reaction? We will be doing the same thing with this experiment but we are going to use a different catalyst and the concentration of the hydrogen peroxide is 9 times the concentration compared to the last experiment!

As a reminder, I am doing this experiment with the supervision of my mom. She used to be a bio chemist and knows how to deal with dangerous chemicals. This concentration of hydrogen peroxide is very caustic and will burn. Please DO NOT attempt this.

I carefully made a saturated solution of our catalyst. If you don’t remember what a catalyst is, it is a chemical that speeds up the reaction of another chemical. In this instance, the catalyst speeds up the reaction of the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide into hydrogen and oxygen.

 

A saturated solution is when you mix something like salt into water and keep adding salt until the water can no longer dissolve the salt crystals. Then you have a saturated solution of salt.

Then I needed to measure out the amount of the hydrogen peroxide into a large graduated cylinder. I had to be extra careful not to spill.

Then I made a mixture of the hydrogen peroxide, some food coloring, and some soap! I gave it a good swirl and we are ready to go!

 

Then I was ready to head outside! I thought it would be best to do it in our rock area so it wouldn’t do anything funny with the grass and easy to wash with a hose.

After I planted the cylinder in the rocks, it turns out you only need about a tablespoon of the catalyst for the reaction. So here we go! I have been waiting to do this experiment for years and I am finally going to do it!

Whoopie-doo! Look at that blue eruption!

The science behind this experiment is the same thing as the previous, its just in bigger proportions! This reaction was actually so warm (see previous post) that is was steaming!

The bubbles, however, are still not quite safe to touch because there could still be some hydrogen peroxide left over that we do not want to come in contact with.

This was foam-tastic! let’s give it a WOW-rating of 8! I would definitely love this forever!