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!
