What is the chemical reaction behind bath bombs?
Bath bombs are known for their dissolving effect once placed in water. They create "bath fizzies", but what is the chemical reaction behind these fizzies?
To create bath bombs we needed corn starch, iodized salt, baking soda, citric acid, essential oils, food coloring, water, and soap molds. I will explain the use of these ingredients and their significance for bath bombs later on. To start our process, we mixed all of the dry ingredients in one bowl and all of the liquid ingredients in another. With the two bowls separated, there was no chemical reaction in the bowls. After we added the two bowls together, it started to fizz a bit. I feared that my partner and I might have done something wrong and this would have an affect on our bath bombs later. (Spoiler Alert: it didn't.) It soon became difficult to mix with a glass stick, so we used our hands instead. The mixture began to feel like moon sand or PlayDoh and clump together. After getting this consistency, we started to place the mixture into the soap molds, pressing them in tightly. To close the molds we wrapped Parafilm around the bottom and let the bath bombs dry overnight.
FEB 25 2015 |
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The Chemistry Behind Bath Bombs
Bath bombs when dry are completely stable. Once the bath bomb touches any type of liquid, like water, the chemicals instantly react and effervesces. The bath bomb seems to melt into the water and release tiny gas bubbles to the surface. Most bath bombs also display a cool design in the water with color. For our homemade bath bombs, most of the ingredients we used were common household ingredients. I was surprised to learn how easy it would be to create our own. Bath bombs primary chemicals are sodium citrate and carbon dioxide. The sodium citrate isn't very noticeable when it comes to the reacting aspect, but the carbon dioxide is responsible for breaking apart the mold with the bubbles it releases when placed in water. When the carbon dioxide breaks the mold, it also releases the fragrances and colors. Bath bombs display reactions when acids reacts to bases when mixed together. In homemade bath bombs, the baking soda acts as the base and the citric acid acts as the acid. But the citric acid isn't harmful to the skin because the cornstarch and salt prevent the baking soda and citric acid from reacting with each other when liquid is added. The cornstarch and salt act as the liquid absorbers. Below is a picture of our final bath bombs.
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I was very happy with how our bath bombs turned out. In the beginning, I was a little nervous that our bath bombs wouldn't react the way we wanted them to. Thankfully we were equipped with all of the materials we needed that they turned out perfect. It felt a little cool to mix all of the ingredients together and learn the effects it has. I learned that bath bombs actually have a lot of chemistry behind them and it's a privilege to say that I've successfully created a few bath bombs of my own. I think my partner and I worked very well together and seemed to think the same way a lot of the time. We collaborate and bounce ideas off of each other and that's what made us so successful in this project.
FEB 26 2015 |