Chemistry and Laundry
Objective
To understand the effects of different chemicals and how those properties work to take out stains in clothing.
Difficulty
Procedure: Easy
Concept: Medium
Concept
One of the hardest parts about doing laundry is getting the stains out without ruining the clothing. This experiment explores how different chemicals and their properties work to take out several different kinds of stains.
Materials
- Pieces of old clothing with different kinds of stains
- Acetone
- Alcohol
- Ammonia Water
- Citric Acid
- Bleach (sodium hypochlorite and/or hydrogen peroxide)
- Corn Starch Glycerin
- Baby Oil or Lighter Fluid
- Oxalic Acid
- Sodium Bisulfate
- Sodium Thiosulfate
- Waterless hand cleaner
- Beakers or glass jars
- Disposable pipettes (small droppers)
- Stirring Rods
- Small Brushes
- Stopwatch/Clock
- Latex gloves for hand protection
- Chemical aprons to protect clothing and body
- Goggles for Eye Protection
Hypothesis
What effect wille each chemical have on the different stains? How do the chemicals effect the clothing?
Procedure
- Always use gloves when handling the chemicals
- Apply the different chemicals to each type of stain by soaking in the beakers, using pipettes, or using the brushes
- Make sure that you don't let any of the chemicals mix!
- After allowing time for the chemicals to work, rinse out each piece of clothing
- Record your results
Analysis
How did each chemical effect the stain? How did each chemical effect the clothing and its color? Which chemical worked best for each stain without harming the clothing?
Extensions
Explore other kinds of methods to gets stains out of clothing? How do they work? Apply this experiment to test which commercial stain remover works the best and explain why.