What liquids does chewing gum dissolve in?

Question

I'm doing a year 10 science experiment, and i've been searching all over the internet to find out, yet I can't. Can someone (with sources included) answer my question?
My experiment is to use different liquids and place the same ammount of chewing gum into each and measure visually how much decay has occured.

When I mean sources, it suppose to mean that if you can state that (eg. soap) is a liquid usable, I can have a website or book information that can back it up.

Answer 1

Well...Gum seems to dissolve in my mouth all the time, so I guess the liquids that are in my mouth. I don't understand it at all. Come take some samples from my mouth and there you have it.

Answer 2

Dissolving Gum

Answer 3

Among the liquids that can dissolve gum are:

saliva: try leaving gum in your mouth, and it will lose its elasticity and eventually melt; saliva is designed to break down starches into glucose and the carbohydrates in gum will break down as well.

100% acetone or high content alcohol: after long periods, the xanthan holding together the gum will dissolve; large amounts of alcohols can even dissolve crazy glue.

hydrochloric, muriatic acid: pool acids are strong enough to dissolve gum, slowly etching at the bonds in the gum.

industrial drain cleaner and a bit of water: this will melt almost anything, even human hair and tape (use gloves and goggles).

clorox bleach: this may soften up the gum considerably as it is a powerful base, but gum may or may not fully dissolve.

boiling water (for 10-15 minutes): water is normally called the universal solvent; try this method as long as it doesn't mess with the conditions of your experiment.

googone: find this citrus-scented chemical in your local hardware store; trust me, this will melt gum and any other adhesive or sticky substance.

Most of the other chemicals that I can think of are all special and cannot be acquired easily. These are the primary household liquids that will dissolve gum. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

AS you are going to test chewing Gum ,which is being used as a sort of confectionery by human being. Therefore, I think you should limit your experiment to the possible solvents which are consumed by human beings like :
water, carbonated drinks, Other soft drinks, Canned juices, Fresh juices, Vinegar, Different types of wines (knowing their alcohol content),Bear,low concentrations of Hydrochloric acid,,Milk, Butter milk,and mineral water etc.
If possible try to compare the results with the pH of the solution and then see whether there is any role of acid or alkali.

Answer 5

What about Petrol as it dissolves rubber except silicon rubber.

Answer 6

lemon juice

Answer 7

Chewing gum is a complex organic substance.
There are substances available to you that will attack it in various ways, but the solvents, you should not be playing with unsupervised in grade 10.

Answer 8

Hope this is useful info..

-Polymer degradation is a change in the properties under the influence of one or more environmental factors such as heat, light or chemicals.

-It is often due to the hydrolysis of the bonds connecting the polymer chain, which in turn leads to a decrease in the molecular mass of the polymer. These changes may be undesirable, such as changes during use, or desirable, as in biodegradation or deliberately lowering the molecular mass of a polymer.

-Such changes occur primarily because of the effect of these factors on the chemical composition of the polymer.

-The degradation of polymers to form smaller moleculars may proceed by random scission or specific scission.

-The degradation of polyethylene occurs by random scission - that is by a random breakage of the linkages (bonds) that hold the atoms of the polymer together.

-When heated above 450 Celsius it degrades to form a mixture of hydrocarbons.

-Other polymers - like polyalphamethylstyrene - undergo 'specific' chain scission with breakage occurring only at the ends. They literally unzip or depolymerize to become the constituent monomer.

In a finished product such a change is to be prevented or delayed. However the degradation process can be useful from the view points of understanding the structure of a polymer or recycling/reusing the polymer waste to prevent or reduce environmental pollution.

Polylactic acid and Polyglycolic acid, for example, are two polymers that are useful for their ability to degrade under aqueous conditions. A copolymer of these polymers is used for biomedical applications such as hydrolysable stitches that degrade over time after they are applied to a wound. These materials can also be used for plastics that will degrade over time after they are used and will therefore not remain as litter.

Answer 9

Since chewing gum is a polymer it probably does not dissolve in much. If you wanted it to dissolve maybe an acid or a base.

Answer 10

Hydrochloric acid. Handle with care. Very nasty stuff. Will dissolve everything including you. Use a respirator. Fumes are deadly. Extremely corrosive substance. Also, never add anything hydrus (water containing) to acid. You can add acid to water but never add water to acid, especially that stuff. Could blow up in your face.