Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Based on a bit of an accident with a sponge I've been experimenting with the corrosive abilities of bleach. I had 3 jars of bleach. The first one was a 50/50 solution of bleach and water with a sponge in it. The second one was another 50/50 with a rice dumpling baked into a brick. The final one was pure bleach with some metal in it.

After the first day the bleach and the metal turned dark black. Not much has changed in 3 days.

The dumpling split up after about 3 hours. It was made from smaller dumplings squeezed together then baked for something like 8 hours at 200 degrees. Now the large chunk which was about half the dumpling is all that is left after 3 days.

For the sponge it started to break apart after 3 hours. 1 day into the experiment the sponge melted leaving slime floating around in the bleach. The scouring pad on the back of the sponge is all that's left. It dyed the bleach green! We always hear of bleach removing color but I actually dyed the bleach! More amusing when I shook up the jar with the sponge it produced a lot of gas really fast and bent the ball lid of the jar. I don't know if I can bend it back in place. I'll have to see. Right now there is too much pressure to remove the ring part of the lid. The gas is slowly venting.

5 minutes later and the gas has vented. I finally got the ring loose. The ball is slightly bent but I think I can fix it. The solution is bubbling and I have the window open for ventilation. The sponge has separated. There is a slime on the top as well as some on the bottom. The scouring pad hasn't melted yet, but it pulls apart easily. The slime on top when squeezed turns into a paste as the fluids leave. The stuff on the bottom is just floating around and can't really be collected. I think I'd need a really fine filter. I stirred up the solution with no bubbling, but when I started messing with the scouring pad it bubbled up so that's where the gas is coming from.

I've got no idea what this really accomplishes. I guess it kills time.