Bath bombs, or effervescent bath tablets, are popular fun and fizzy bath supplements, but they can also be used as an educational tool to teach reaction kinetics. Cosmetic chemistry, though extremely prevalent in everyday life, is fairly uncommon in the scientific education literature. Our group has previously designed and implemented a teaching lab experiment in which students use bath bombs to explore the connection between reaction rate and temperature. We have now extended the experiment to investigate what effect the specific size and shape of reactant mixtures have on reaction time. The rate of a reaction depends on several factors such as temperature, reactant concentration, and the presence or absence of a catalyst. We predicted that the acid-base reaction that occurs when the citric acid and sodium bicarbonate in a bath bomb interact in an aqueous solution also depends on the surface area of the bath bomb mixture. We compared the reaction rate of a loose powder mixture to that of a compressed tablet of the reactants by monitoring the solution pH during the “fizzing” of the bath bomb. Details of the experiment and the particular influence of surface area on the bath bomb reaction rate will be discussed.

Coming full circle: Surface area and its impact on the reaction time of bath bombs

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.