Revive Dead Soda!

Well it is that time of year again, it is the time of

pumpkins, witches, and of course mad scientists. That’s right, it is Halloween! For this video, I will show you how to reanimate bodies! What, hold on… My producers say that I am not allowed to talk about that on YouTube. I am also being told that I do not have producers. In that case I’ll show you how to recarbonate soft drinks, using two salts, especially bringing them back from the dead.

For this experiment I have gathered 3 popular soft drinks:

Sprite, Mellow Yellow, 7-Up. And I allowed them to go flat overnight. Next you will need Food Grade Citric Acid, and Sodium Carbonate, or Sodium Bicarbonate. What we will do is mix the flat soda with equal amounts Sodium Bicarb, and Citric Acid. For comparison we have “Fresh Soda”. Also For this experiment we have got a lab assistant to both taste test, and for a driver if something goes wrong. Lets give a warm welcome to College Chemistry’s first Lab Assistant Nick.

Onto the experiment. I was able to acquire my Citric Acid

from a seller on eBay, however due to a shipping error on their part I had to throw a large amount of the substance away, and thus I do not want to support their page. I recommend buying it from amazon, or a local store. I was able to purchase the citric acid for about $4 a lb. A large amount of Sodium Carbonate, or Bicarbonate can be purchased from any grocery store under the guise of Baking Soda, or Baking Powder. Finally for the assorted Soft Drinks. I made sure to chose only those whose flavor was citric, so the flavors could match. What will happen is a reaction between the Citric Acid and the Bicarbonate to produce Water, CO2, and an aqueous Salt H3C6H5O7(aq) + 3NaHCO3(aq) --> [sodium citrate]Na3C6H5O7(aq) + 3CO2(g) + 3H2O(l).

The combination of Sodium

Bicarb, and Citric acid are not unheard of. Some people (UK) will remember the Salt mixture called Eno, which was sold as an OTC antacid.

In case you are worried all the products and reactants are safe for consumption in low quantities. However, perform this experiment ONLY if you are an adult. As a side note, since the reaction called for a little more Sodium Bicarb, it made the sodas less acidic. While also producing Carbonic Acid, increasing the acidity. I would love to get Litmus paper and test the pH.

We found that the lower
the Sodium Citrate content, the better the solutions tasted. So near the end of the experiment we used a small amount of both reagents.