Home Made Bath Bombs- What is the science behind it?

What is the science behind bath bombs?

This week in science club we had great fun making home made bath bombs. Did you know that lots of science is involved in the making of bath bombs? Bath bombs work through an acid-base reaction. They are made by mixing together two very reactive chemicals, bread soda and citric acid. As soon as the chemicals get wet, they start reacting! It is very important in this experiment to make sure everything stays dry. We don’t want our bath bombs detonating by mistake!!!

It is also very important that the right amount of chemicals are used in this experiment. We want the citric acid and bread soda in the bomb to completely react with each other. We don’t want to have a basic bath or an acid bath due to using the wrong measurements! Bread soda isn’t as strong as citric acid. Citric acid is actually about 3 times stronger! For every 1 gram of citric acid used we need 3 grams of bread soda to cancel it out.

What makes the bath bomb detonate?

As we said above, as soon as the bomb gets wet, the chemicals start to react. The acid and the base react together and make a gas (Carbon dioxide) which makes big bubbles and fizzing in the bathtub. The reaction is over when all the chemicals are used up and the fizzing stops. You bath will be left a different colour and smelling lovely due to us adding colouring and essential oils to the bath bomb!

The Finished product! -Time for a nice relaxing bath!

If you would like to try out our experiments, join one of our public science clubs, come to one of our science camps or even book one of our scientists to do science at your birthday party!