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Elephant toothpaste is a chemical reaction that produces a large amount of foam when hydrogen peroxide is added to a mixture of dish soap, yeast, and warm water. Devil’s toothpaste is a type of explosive made from a combination of potassium chlorate, sugar, and sulfur.
Elephant’s toothpaste
elephant toothpaste is a foamy substance caused by rapid decomposition in hydrogen peroxide (HtwoTHEtwo) using potassium iodide (KI) or yeast and warm water like catalyst. How quickly the reaction takes place will depend on the concentration of hydrogen peroxide.
Because it only requires a small number of ingredients and makes a “foam volcano”, this is a popular experiment for kids to perform at school or at parties. The experiment is also known as “experience with marshmallow”but it is not related to the psychological Stanford marshmallow experiment.
Explanation
Description
About 50 ml of concentrated hydrogen peroxide (>12%) is first mixed with liquid soap or dishwashing detergent. Then a catalyst, usually around 10 ml potassium iodide solution or catalase from baker’s yeast, is added to cause hydrogen peroxide to decompose very quickly. Hydrogen peroxide breaks down into oxygen and water. Since a small amount of hydrogen peroxide generates a large volume of oxygen, the oxygen quickly leaves the container. Soapy water traps oxygen, creating bubbles and turns into foam. About 5-10 drops of food coloring can also be added before the catalyst to dramatize the effect. How quickly the reaction takes place will depend on the concentration of hydrogen peroxide used.
chemical explanation
This experiment shows the catalyzed decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide (HtwoTHEtwo) breaks down into water and oxygen gas, which is in the form of a foam, but the reaction is usually too slow to be easily seen or measured:
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catalyst and accelerates the reaction while remaining chemically unchanged in the reaction process. The iodide ion changes the mechanism by which the reaction takes place:
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exothermic; the foam produced is hot.[specify] A glowing splint can be used to show that the gas produced is oxygen. The foaming rate measured in volume per unit time has a positive correlation with the peroxide concentration (v/v%), which means that the more reagents (peroxide concentration) the faster the foaming rate.
variations
youtube science animator Mark Rober created a variation of the experiment, called “devil’s toothpaste”, which has a much more pronounced reaction than the version typically run in classroom settings. The ingredients to create the devil’s toothpaste reaction are the same as the normal elephant toothpaste reaction, the only difference is that 50% H2O2 instead of the usual 35%
See too
References
External Links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to elephant toothpaste.
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exothermic; the foam produced is hot.[specify] A glowing splint can be used to show that the gas produced is oxygen. The foaming rate measured in volume per unit time has a positive correlation with the peroxide concentration (v/v%), which means that the more reagents (peroxide concentration) the faster the foaming rate.
- The Elephant’s Toothpaste Experiment sciencebob.com