When making a homemade volcano what do baking soda, yeast, dish soap, water and peroxide each contribute...?

Question

to the erupting of my volcano?
I am in an elementary education chemistry class and we are making volcanos that can be used in our classrooms someday but for the assignment part I have to turn in a reason as to why these chemicals give off the reaction they do when mixed.

To make my volcano I mixed baking soda, yeast, water and dish soap together and got no reaction, but when i added the peroxide, the reaction rose and gave the erupting effect. I tried leaving out one ingredient each time but the reaction wouldn't work when i did, so i know each ingredient has a purpose. Please help me with this problem! i have been searching for over an hour and still have no idea.

thanks!

I know this can be done easier with baking soda and vinegar but that is not what my assignment was. Thanks!

Answer 1

I'll try to explain this without going too much into chemistry.

Before adding peroxide, your mixture is fairly basic with baking soda;

hydrogen peroxide is an acidic compound [though it's fairly weak], as we know, acids react with bases; it will react with the base in the mixture, in our case, baking soda. This reaction will give out gases and heat, with dish soap, you will have lots of air bubbles. Another reason why you're using H2O2 is because H2O2 decomposes on its own to give out gas, so you will have a better effect than just adding acids; this decomposition is catalysed by trace amount of metal ions [transition metals], so if you could find some copper salt [for example, CuSO4] and add them in the mixture, the reaction will be even more violent.

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Not all ingradients have significant purpose in your case; for example, you can remove the yeast while still having the same effects [hydrogen peroxide will kill them anyways].

Answer 2

Just a note, using vinegar and baking soda (plus anything else for looks and color) will work with a little less hassle.

Answer 3

You put the baking soda in first and when your ready to make the volcano erupt you add the vinegar/dish detergent mixture to it.

Answer 4

baking soda and red vinger for color