Chemistry After Hours 1 - "Elephant Toothpaste"

"Elephant Toothpaste"

When our organic chemistry lab ended a little early for a change, we decided to do some more entertainment oriented experiments.

Our "Elephant Toothpaste" was created through the combination of hydrogen peroxide, potassium iodide, and dish soap. While reacting, it did produce steam, but the camera didn't pick it up well. However, touching the hot foam and hastily trying to get it off did get captured by the camera fairly well.

We used 30% hydrogen peroxide, a concentrated solution of KI, and Dial dish soap if you wish to know. It's easy enough to find more detailed instructions through the use of your friendly neighborhood search engine.

For the record, if you do this, use gloves and goggles. Better safe than tripping, slamming your face into the foam, and running around screaming. There's a good chance you'd still go into a panic even if you had goggles and gloves on when you did that, but it's the thought that counts.

And I've gotta say, ours is orange, so that makes it pretty darn cool (you can thank the soap for that). But honestly, the reaction of the "chemists" is more enjoyable than the reaction of the "toothpaste," in my opinion :)

[A special shout-out to "Wired Science" and "SI on Campus" for the features!]

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