• Science

  Hydrogen peroxide decomposition reaction

  Posted by Ichlas on January 23, 2020 at 1:11 am

  I was wondering what is hydrogen
  peroxide decomposition reaction? why is it resulting an acidic solution
  (decreasing the pH from the initial pH) as they decompose over time.

  Ichlas replied 3 years, 4 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies

  • chemical-reaction
  • hydrogen-peroxide
  • ph
• 3 Replies

• 

  EVchem

  Member

  January 23, 2020 at 2:14 pm

   2 H2O2 —UV/heat/time-> 2 H2O + O2

  Hydrogen peroxide is a weak acid, that’s why the solution becomes acidic. This is more of a general chemistry question though that you could easily learn more about by googling

• 

  Pharma

  Member

  January 23, 2020 at 8:54 pm

  EVchem said:

  …Hydrogen peroxide is a weak acid, that’s why the solution becomes acidic…

  Reason has it that this would mean it becomes alkaline since the acid (H2O2) decomposes .

  I don’t have a definite answer but a guess: It might be stabilisers which causes the effect. H2O2 is often stabilised with a small amount phosphoric acid. Once O2 has gassed out, volume goes down and, because it’s lacking a buffer, even that small a change leads to a noticeable drop in pH.

• 

  Ichlas

  Member

  January 24, 2020 at 2:23 am

  @Pharma that totally makes sense. thank you so much for the answer 🙂

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