GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — We've all seen impressive science experiments on television and the internet, but you can create this experiment at home, using household ingredients.
Today, we're making Elephant Toothpaste.
Elephant Toothpaste
*This experiment requires safety goggles as well as adult supervision when handling hydrogen peroxide.
Ingredients
- Clear plastic pop bottle or water bottle
- Tray for bottle to sit on
- 1/2 cup Hydrogen Peroxide, 3% solution (6% is ideal but not stocked in most grocery stores)
- 1 tbsp. dry active yeast
- 3 tbsp. warm water
- Liquid dish washing soap
- Food coloring (optional)
- Measuring cup
- Safety goggles
Procedure
- Put on safety goggles!
- Carefully pour hydrogen peroxide into the plastic bottle (use a funnel if needed).
- Add a couple squeezes of dish soap in the bottle.
- Add a few drops of food coloring. You can add it right to the mixture to get a solid color, or experiment with adding drops along the edges of the bottle, which will come out as stripes in your toothpaste.
- Mix yeast with warm water for about 30 seconds. Add to your bottle.
- Watch the reaction happen!
One more note: the foam is sate to touch if using 3% hydrogen peroxide, but avoid contact with 6% as it may irritate eyes and skin.
How it works
This experiment is chemistry at its most fun! Hydrogen peroxide, or H2O2, is made up of hydrogen and oxygen. The yeast acts as a catalyst (a substance that speeds up chemical reactions) and separates the hydrogen from the oxygen. This happens fast, so bubbles of oxygen are created - this is the foam you observe.
The bottle of foam will also get warmer as the reaction happens because the chemicals released energy as it happened.
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