Simple science cleaning hack

Spilled grape juice on a T-shirt at a party? Don’t worry – science can help!

Warn­ing! Only un­der adult su­per­vi­sion

Equip­ment

  • white T-shirt;
  • grape juice;
  • wa­ter;
  • warm bak­ing soda so­lu­tion.

Step-by-step in­stric­tions

It’s al­ways a shame when grape juice stains new clothes. But nev­er fear – sci­ence is here to save the day! Just soak your T-shirt in a warm bak­ing soda so­lu­tion, then rinse it with wa­ter – the stain will dis­ap­pear!

Sci­en­tif­ic de­scrip­tion

The an­tho­cyanins con­tained in grapes read­i­ly bind to cot­ton fibers via very weak chem­i­cal bonds – so-called hy­dro­gen bonds. These bonds break down in the al­ka­line medi­um cre­at­ed by the bak­ing soda so­lu­tion.

Cool ex­per­i­ments are wait­ing for you in the MEL Sci­ence sub­scrip­tion!

Try it