[Leah]

Dear chemistry forum,
I'm having a lot of trouble finding an answer to this question. I already sent the question to Mr. Science, who never replied, and to allexperts.com, who replied that they didn't know the answer. And I received an error message trying to submit to the Dr. Universe site. The situation is that I recently made my own homemade all-purpose cleaner by combining several recipes I found online. In a glass jar, I mixed 2 tablespoons baking soda with a quarter cup of white vinegar. When the fizzing subsided, I added two cups of warm water and 2 cups of hydrogen peroxide (3% concentration). I also added about 30 drops each of tea tree oil and orange oil. The cleaner works really well, but I'm worried that it might be a little too potent. It's been several weeks, and the stuff in the jar is still slightly fizzing. I can't actually see any fizzing, but when I open the lid, there is a pop, and some air (a gas?) forceably escapes. At first I left some of the liquid in a spray bottle, and left the bottle sitting on a shelf, and after a few days the fizzing caused enough pressure to build up that the liquid was slowly dribbling up out of the nozzle. By the time I noticed this, the liquid had eaten away the paint on the shelf around the base of the spray bottle. What exactly have I made? What gas is being produced by the fizzing? Is this stuff dangerous? (The spray bottle incident, at least, taught me not to use it on painted surfaces.) The people at allexperts.com said that they aren't positive, but that it seems the substance "is not stable and is constantly changing as far as the ingredients go." But I'd still like some more details about what exactly the substance is, what it's "constantly" changing into, and what it's producing when it fizzes. Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

[Borek]

I doubt anybody will be able to answer your questions, as the information provided is too vague. It is even not possible to tell whether initial fizzling subsided because there was an excess acid or excess bicarbonate - or at least I have no idea how "2 tablespoons" and "quarter cup" converts to grams and moles.

IMHO pressure buildup is most likely due to slow hydrogen peroxide decompostion, but that's as good guess as anything else.

[Leah]

Hi, sorry, I guess I was thinking of this in terms of a cooking recipe, and the related US measurements. Two tablespoons of baking soda would be 14.4 grams. A quarter cup of vinegar would be 60 milliliters. Then that'd be 480 milliliters each of hydrogen peroxide and warm water, and about 5 milliliters each of tea tree oil and orange oil. Perhaps that will help someone answer the question? You'll have to forgive me--my background's not in chemistry. I didn't know what a "mole" was before posting to this site, and I've now looked it up but I still can't figure out how to calculate them. Thanks again.

[Leah]

Perhaps I should also add that the initial fizzing was expected, due to mixing the baking soda and vinegar. And that subsided within minutes, which was also expected. What's baffling me is the fact that, weeks later, it's still actively fizzing. I'm mostly concerned with knowing whether it's producing any dangerous gases, or if I should be in fear of the container exploding (I do loosen the cap occasionally to release the pressure).

[pantone159]

Try mixing different variations with some of the ingredients missing, to see which ones are involved.

[Borek]

What was vinegar concentration?

Check if there is still hydrogen peroxide in the solution - pour several drops over fresh meat, or drop of blood, or cigarette ash. If there is H₂O₂ present you should see some bubbling (although if the concentration is low it can be difficult if not impossible to observe). The same process goes all the time, albeit slowly, as long as hydrogen peroxide is not completely decomposed.

Hydrogen peroxide decomposition produces oxygen - not dangerous in these amounts.

[brwagur]

Is it possible that the H₂O₂ could be oxidizing the tea and orange oils? What class of compounds would that produce?