Nuking is a broad term that means ‘Destroy; get rid of: “I fertilized the lawn and nuked the weeds”.’
My sister was once nuked by a zombie.
This topic never bothers to answer the question. The straight dope my 4$$. Riddle me this: how much time does it take 3% of food grade (that is NOT stabilized with any additives, just Distilled H2O & H2O2) H2O2 to break down?
Classic experiment in British schools in the '80s and early '90s, take a test tube full of hydrogen peroxide and add a chunk of raw calf’s liver, and then do the glowing splint test on the gas produced. The experiment is then repeated after boiling the liver in water for several minutes to denature the catalase.
I think I did that experiment every year for the first three years of secondary school.
And liver remains can be placed in the class spanner’s blazer pocket for shits and giggles (and much retching later in the week)… Although bull’s eyeballs make for more gross out comedy fun by far.
zombie or no
Duke are we talking in the light or not? what is the wavelength? what is the intensity? what is the opacity of the container?
I think the fundamental question is not exactly how long it would take, but whether or not what is left after sufficient time is actually, really and truly-o safe to drink, or whether or not there are sufficient lingering impurities that will forever (or at least for the rest of your life) leave the sample not safely able to be drunk until it is processed through a water treatment plant or something.
Just curious, what made you sign up on this board just to post that (also, odd username-post combo)? This is one thing that really gets me about zombie posts, which are almost all by people who have just signed up, and often their only post.
You have to watch out for additives in most commercially available peroxide. These are added to slow the natural breakdown, and in addition if not intended for consumption there may be other contaminents. But many catalysts will break down peroxide. Yeast, or any cell (I think) will contain something I can’t remember that breaks it down. This is why pouring peroxide on an open would will cause foaming. The cells have to be dry, or broken I believe.
Six and a half years later…but it’s platinum (unless that’s since I started using it).
There are a lot of catalysts. Silver is a good one, but expensive.
I mean platinum is the one used with the contact kit. They plate the little metal disc you see in Step 1 of that link which is what was being referred to.
Rereading that post, I realize Slaphead wasn’t referring to the contact kit in the first sentence. Oh well.
You got me I signed up to get an answer:
How long does it take 3% hydrogen peroxide to break down when exposed to twelve hours of light a day in a translucent container like a 1 gal distilled water bottle
Indirect light from the sun in my house, or I could put it outside I guess. Full spectrum I would guess. It doesn’t stay very sunny all the time where I live. Not completely translucent, more like the opacity or semi-translucence of a milk carton. I want to inject a small amount of 35% H2O2 into a 1 gal bottle of distilled water to make it 3%, and have it break down into H2O as quickly as possible without introducing a catalyst other than light.
Or vibration could be introduced as well, I’m just looking to sanitize the water without introducing any chemical agents other that the H2O2 which will break down to H2O.
Also, How would one test for H2O2 in the water?
You test using a catalyst. If will foam if there’s any significant amount of peroxide left. Dried yeast would be inexpensive and easy to test with. Just put a few drops of your water on a smidgen of dried yeast.
I’m interested in an aspect of this question, because I use hydrogen peroxide to disinfect my anti-snoring mouthpiece. I put a few ounces in a small glass and drop the mouthpiece in each morning, and until reading this thread, I’d use the same few ounces for days at a time, topping it up to compensate for evaporation.
Now I’m wondering if what I have in the glass is mostly water. How can I tell?
Sorry, I didn’t notice TriPolar’s test idea. Theoretically, how long should it take H202 to break down in the conditions I mentioned? I.e., how often should I refresh the stuff in the glass?
For my son’s birthday party we were thinking of doing the “elephant’s toothpaste” science experiment, where you mix diluted H202 with yeast and watch it foam. My “it’s-cool-to-blow-up-stuff” gene trumped my “be-a-responsbile-dad” gene, and I decided “forget the wimpy 3% stuff from Walgreens; let’s get the heavy duty 30% stuff from the swimming pool supply store” (some people use H2O2 as an alternative to chlorine). So I prepared individual kits consisting of H2O2 in one empty water bottle and a yeast-warm water mix in another. After watching a bunch of hyperactive 10-year-old boys shoot Diet Coke & Mentos in each others faces, pummel each other with water balloons, and get silly string in all sorts of uncomfortable places, I realized the H2O2 experiment might not be a good idea. So I hid the kits and brought them home from the park unused. I left the box outside on the side of the house.
4 months later, I stumbled across the box and decided to give it a go. The premixed yeast had gone flat, but when I added a fresh packed of yeast and closed the water bottle lid (sport-top lid), I got very powerful geysers (higher than our roof, so at least 12-15 feet) of foam.
Short answer: For 30% H2O2, left in clear plastic bottles in indirect sunlight, it will take more than 4 months to become plain drinkable water.
Excellent answer. Also, did you just happen to leave out, or do you not use in your recipe for “elephant’s toothpaste” dishwashing detegent, or food coloring? Detergent helps keep the bubbles in tact, enabling you to stick a lighted splint in there and having it burst into a bright flame because of all the free O2. (Science classroom demo). Food coloring makes it look cool.
You’re right, I forgot about the dish soap, which was added to the bottle with the peroxide. I had food coloring for the party, but didn’t bother with it when I was setting them off at home.