DIET COKE PLUS MENTOS ERUPTION DIET COKE PLUS MENTOS ERUPTION : What is really behind in this physical reaction? INTRODUCTION: The experiment involves something that you can do with soda that will not rot your teeth, unless you decide to drink Diet Coke combined with Mentos candy. Unlike Pop Rocks and soda which don’t actually make your head explode if consumed together combining Mentos with Diet Coke really does cause a chemical reaction. The mentos and Diet coke experience has become quite popular. When mentos dropped in Diet coke, a huge eruptions occurs. The main idea of this experience is to determine what causes the interesting reaction. There are many different theories floating around the internet, however, only one can be corrected. This labs requires performing the mentos and Diet coke experiment numerous times, changing a variable. The variable that is going to be tested and change is the substance Gum-Arabic an ingredients in the mentos. The ingredients of Gum-Arabic reacts with the carbonation of the soda-- making the huge eruption Made famous by internet videos, and Mythbusters in 2006, it was thought that this effect was a reaction of what happens when the gum arabic and gelatin, caffeine, potassium benzoate, and aspartame is combined. What actually happens during the reaction has yet to be figured out, but most people agree on a popular explanation. The reaction works like this: each Mento has thousands of nucleation sites, tiny surface pits, which make a perfect place for the formation of carbon dioxide bubbles. When the Mentos and Coke combine, the bubbles start a huge reaction. Some fountains can be almost ten meters high. The gas is released and pushes the Coke up to the top with great force. There isn't a lot of research done about Mentos and Coke yet, since it is a new phenomenon. Bubble Theory: Why do sodas fizz when you open them? We like our drinks nice and fizzy. Thanks, Henry’s Law! P= Kc Here P is partial pressure of gas above liquid, K is a constant, and c is the molar concentration of solute. The partial pressure of the gas above the solution is directly proportional to the concentration of solute gas in the solution. So when you pop the top, the equilibrium within the bottle or can is broken, and the concentrated carbon dioxide gas leaves the container. The partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the surrounding gas then drops, forcing the concentration of the solute gas to drop, so it bubbles out. Bubble theory: How bubbles form in liquids In most liquids, there is some dissolved gas. In high surface tension liquids, like water, it tough for bubbles to form, because water molecules like to be next to other water molecules (capillary forces). To overcome this, a nucleation site is generally needed. Gas molecules congregate next to nucleation sites, which break up the network of water molecules. When enough are gathered, they form a bubble. Due to capillary forces, the bubble will initially stay at its nucleation site. But usually, the buoyancy of the bubble will eventually cause it to rise, as more and more gas molecules collect in the bubble. More fun bubble facts… When a soda is bottled, it is bottled under a relatively high pressure of CO2 that exceeds the solubility of CO2 in the rest of the formula (mostly water). When the can is opened without shaking high pressure CO2 above the liquid escapes, making the familiar hiss. The CO2 in the liquid slowly escapes until equilibrium is achieved. When2 the unopened can is shaken, some of the gaseous CO 2gets mixed into the liquid, forming a super saturated solution. The mixed in gas also2.provide growth sites for the dissolved CO2.The growth sites allow the CO2to escape much more rapidly-- hence the "explosive" evolution of CO2gas. Bubble Theory: The importance of surfactants •Adding surfactants to water reduce the work required to form a bubble, making bubbles easier to form and longer lasting • Surfactants are long chained molecules (like soap) that have a water loving and water fearing end. What burning questions did the Myth busters leave for me? • Main Mentos contributors to the reaction: gum Arabic and gelatin • Main Diet Coke contributors to the reaction: caffeine, aspartame, potassium benzoate • Rough surface of Mentos provides growth sites for the carbon dioxide dissolved in Diet Coke • How rough is Mentos compared to other samples and how much does roughness matter compared to presence of surfactants in soda or candy? Baking Soda and Vinegar The experiment baking soda and vinegar is one of the most popular. However, it is deceptively simple: what appears to be one reaction is actually two, happening in quick succession. This reaction is an example of a multi-step reaction. What actually happens is this: the acetic acid (that's what makes vinegar sour) reacts with sodium bicarbonate (a compound that's in baking soda) to form carbonic acid. It's really a double replacement reaction. Carbonic acid is unstable, and it immediately falls apart into carbon dioxide and water (it's a decomposition reaction). The bubbles you see from the reaction come from the carbon dioxide escaping the solution that is left. Carbon dioxide is heavier than air, so, it flows almost like water when it overflows the container. It is a gas that you exhale (though in small amounts), because it is a product of the reactions that keep your body going. The classic baking soda and vinegar acid-base reaction produces unstable carbonic acid that rapidly decomposes into water and carbon dioxide, which escapes as a gas. For the Mentos–Diet Coke reaction, the carbonic acid and carbon dioxide are not products of a chemical reaction but are already present in the Diet Coke, whose equilibrium is disturbed by the addition of the Mentos. MATERIALS: 2 bottles of 1 liter or 1.5 liter coke or any carbonated drink (preferrably coke) mentos PROCEDURE: - just simply put the mentos to the bottle of the diet coke. SAFETY: - Insure that the proper eye protection is in use while experiment is in action to prevent eye irritation. ABSTRACT: Our goal for the experiment was to find if the ingredient "Gum-Arabic" , found in mentos candy, caused the eruption when mentos were dropped into a bottle of diet coke. Our hypothesis was that candies with gum arabic would have a greater reaction than those that did not. We tested this by dropping mentos into 2-liter bottles of diet coke, and measuring how much was left in the bottle when reaction was done. CHEMICAL REACTION: - Diet coke + mentos EXPLANATION: A Soda and Candy eruption (also known as a Coke and Mentos eruption) is a reaction of carbonated beverage and mentos candies. The numerous small pores on the candy's surface CATALYZE the release CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2) gas from the soda, resulting in the rapid expulsion of copious amounts of FOAM When the candies come into contact with the liquid, a reaction causes the formation of foam at a rapid rate.The structure of the Mentos is the most significant cause of the eruption due to NUCLEATION. When fruit-flavored Mentos with a smooth waxy coating were tested in CARBONATED DRINK there was hardly a reaction, whereas mint-flavored Mentos (with no such coating) added to carbonated drink formed an energetic eruption, affirming the nucleation-site theory. According to Mythbusters, the surface of the mint Mentos is covered with many small holes that increase the SURFACE AREA available for reaction (and thus the quantity of reagents exposed to each other at any given time), thereby allowing CO2 bubbles to form with a rapidity and in a quantity that are responsible for the "jet"- or "geyser"-like nature of the effusion. This hypothesis gained further support when ROCK SALT was used as a "jump start" to the reaction. CONCLUSION: After doing the experiment, it was decided that the hypothesis was to be rejected. The hypothesis stated that the gum Arabic from the Mentos, and the carbonation from the Diet Coke created the reaction. However, two of the four candies used in the experiment did not contain gum Arabic, and they had extreme reactions. For instance, the Sweetarts (containing no gum Arabic) and Diet Coke mixture had the highest fizz geyser and only had 32 oz. of the solution left after the reaction. Obviously, this proved our hypothesis wrong. From this experiment, the group learned that this reaction is not a chemical, but a physical reaction. After this information was obtained, the group discovered that it cannot be the gum Arabic causing the reaction because all the candies created fizz and geysers. This showed that Mentos are not the only candy that can react with the Diet Coke. The experiment showed the group that candy and Diet Coke can potentially be dangerous. If someone takes a sip of Diet Coke directly after putting a piece of candy in their mouth, the reaction could occur inside their mouth. Aside from that, the errors in the experiment should be discussed. One possible error that was made was when the Tic-Tacs were dropped in the funnel, not all of them went through. This could have affected the results of the experiment. So, if the experiment was done again, the size of the funnel should be modified. Overall, the experiment went very smoothly and the results were quite surprising. Actual Experimentation :