How to make soap bubbles

Making soap bubbles at home

How can you make soap bub­bles us­ing veg­etable oil? You just need a lit­tle pa­tience and some drain clean­er!

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Wear pro­tec­tive gloves, eye­wear, and a mask. Per­form this ex­per­i­ment in a well-ven­ti­lat­ed area. Ob­serve safe­ty pre­cau­tions when work­ing with fire.

Reagents and equip­ment

  • 10 mL veg­etable oil;
  • 10 mL glyc­erin;
  • 30 mL drain clean­er;
  • glass beaker;
  • stove;
  • straw.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Com­bine 10 mL glyc­erin, 10 mL veg­etable oil, and 30 mL drain clean­er in the beaker. Mix thor­ough­ly, cov­er with a lid, and bring to a boil. Let sim­mer 1 hour. Mix the re­sult with wa­ter. In­sert a straw and blow air through the straw. You’ve made your soap bub­bles!

Process de­scrip­tion

Veg­etable oil con­sists of glyc­erin com­pounds and fat­ty acids. Sodi­um hy­drox­ide (drain clean­er) de­stroys these com­pounds, form­ing fat­ty acid salts. These fat­ty acid salts have sur­fac­tant prop­er­ties and thus make the wa­ter foam.

Try it