Elephant's Toothpaste in a Pumpkin (catalytic decompostion of hydrogen peroxide within dishsoap creates a foam)
ORIGINALLY POSTED 5-1-12:
Doing the "Elephant's Toothpaste" reaction inside a carved pumpkin (a plastic pumpkin works too). The foam oozes from the mouth and eye holes of the pumpkin, resulting in a totally gross demonstration! ABOVE: The foam is just beginning to ooze out. BELOW: At the end of the demo (left) and photographs of another run (middle and right). Aqueous potassium iodide was used as the catalyst. Special thanks to Kathleen Shanks from the Institute for Chemical Education for helpful advice.
This demonstration is based on an article published in Chem 13 News. We do not have the article information, but we would be happy to post it if anyone finds the reference.
UPDATE 11-18-13:
Here is a picture of the pumpkin that we have used for years of shows. We tell the audience that the pumpkin is green because it does not feel very well. The lid has been recently redesigned: 1) it is clear so that the demonstrator can monitor the initial progress of the reaction, and 2) the "stem" of the pumpkin is a wooden dowel that is long enough for the demonstrator to use to hold the lid down without discomfort from the exothermic reaction.
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