Chapter 6, Lesson 5 Multimedia

Elephant's Toothpaste

Hydrogen peroxide decomposes on its own into water and oxygen gas.
This process is speed up by a catalyst.
In this reaction, the catalyst is potassium permanganate and the bubbles are full of oxygen gas.

Hydrogen peroxide decomposes on its own into water and oxygen gas.
This process is speed up by a catalyst.
In this reaction, the catalyst is potassium permanganate.
The reaction produces a lot of heat so the substance shooting out of the bottle is water vapor that is condensing in the cooler air.
Oxygen gas is invisible but is mixed in with the water vapor.

When hydrogen peroxide decomposes, 2 molecules of hydrogen peroxide produce 2 molecules of water and 1 molecule of oxygen.