IRS Project by Lee Vint Ve The aims of this project is to: - Find the best household substitute for detergent and to help make cleaning grease off Tupperware and similar materials easier - To provide a cheap and easy alternative to detergent to use on grease in general in case detergent runs out and is not easily available. - I have found surprisingly high level of acid in some of the foodstuffs that I tested and some of the acids have been known to be used in commercial detergent and other cleaning agents. - The science behind the experiment centres around the ability of certain weak acids (commonly found in foods) to break down and ultimately, remove grease stains off materials such as Tupperware. - Some acids, like citric acid, found in lemon juice and some brands of flavoured drinks, have been known to be used in dishwashing liquid. - I have been constantly hearing the myth (first from my Primary One teacher) that coke has cleaning properties. - Also, it was mentioned on the popular documentary series Mythbusters. - That was enough to make me wonder about cleaning properties in other foodstuff, and how it can be applied onto real-life applications (and to make the labour of dishwashing easier). - I also started to wonder about the science behind the cleaning property of coca-cola. Scrub Test 1. The first step in my experiment is to pour a spoonful of cooking oil (grease) and rub it on the surface of the tupperware 2. Next, I poured 100ml of the testing liquid (listed below) into the container 3. Then, I used a sponge and scrubbed the tupperware for exactly 60 seconds 4. After that, I removed the remaining testing liquid in the container 5. Then, I used pieces of tissue paper to rub the remaining grease off, then recorded the results Soak Test 6. Repeat step 1 and 2, with the same amount of grease but 500ml of testing liquid 7. Leave the set-ups for 24 hours 8. Repeat stops 4 and 5 DRINK TESTED COKE PEPSI SPRITEDILUTED LEMON JUICE (DLJ) VINEGAR (V)BAKING SODA SOLUTION (BSL) WATERDETERGENT (D) Tissues needed to clean grease left (SCRUB) Tissues needed to clean grease left (SOAK) Total: Rank(soak): D DLJBSLVCokePepsiSpriteWater Rank(scrub): D DLJVSpritePepsi BSLWater Overall D DLJVSpriteCokePepsiBSLWater - Diluted lemon juice is the best household substitute for dishwashing liquid, with vinegar coming next, then sprite. - Another thing is that the coke had, up to some extent, cleaning properties, but however has not proven to be effective cleaning agent and did badly compared to lemon juice. Although Coca-Cola and Pepsi have vast amounts of phosphoric acid, but the cleaning abilities are less than lemon and Sprite’s. - However, the baking soda solution worked well during the soak test but did not fare as well during my scrub test as the baking soda took a longer time to react and mix with the water and with the grease, but I did not give it time to do so. Also, the baking soda might only work under have been known to have higher temperature, therefore the possible need of heated 2 reasons: the pH levels of acid is much lower than the citric acid which is found in lemons and Sprite, and the sugar in the drinks balance the phosphoric acid. However, Sprite has less concentration of citric acid than lemons, with vinegar coming second as it contains ethanoic acid, which has a pH level between that of Citric acid and phosphoric acid. - My conclusion is that foods containing citric acid are the most effective cleaning substitutes of detergent with Ethanoic acid being next and lastly phosphoric acid, with lemon being the best substitute due to its extremely high concentration of citric acid. Wikipedia(2010) Citric Acid- Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia [online]. Available from Accessed on 5 July Mizkan Americas,inc(2010) Vinegar Tips: Cleaning with vinegar [online]. Available from Accessed on 10 July T. Zeigler(2000) Coke: A Household Cleaner[online]. Available from Accessed on 10 July Break The Chain(2003) Break The Chain-Have a Coke and have a Snarl[online]. Available from Accessed on 23 June Wikipedia(2010) Bile- Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia [online]. Available from Accessed on 10 September. Mallinckrodt Baker, Inc. (2010) PHOSPHORIC ACID [online]. Available from Accessed 15 August Special thanks: I would also like to thank my teacher mentors Mrs Esther Koh, Mrs Koh Yong Yong, and Mr Daniel Guan for their support, and my parents for helping me in the experiment Scrub Test Set-up Results of Scrub Test Soak Test Set-up Results of Soak Test