I wanted a small demo of heterogeneous catalysis for class today, and found a package featuring the AOSept contact lens cleaning system in my demo area. In this system,
the contact lenses are placed in a cleaning solution that contains hydrogen peroxide. To help keep the peroxide from getting into person's eyes, the vial containing the peroxide solution and the contact lenses also contains a platinum-coated disk, which catalytically decomposes the hydrogen peroxide into oxygen gas and water. After about 6 hours, the contacts are clean and the peroxide has decomposed. The picture shows oxygen bubbles in the vial that I passed around my class. It should be noted that there is a gas vent in the top of the vial and therefore the vial should be kept upright to prevent spills.
No comments:
Post a Comment