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Old September 8, 2012   #20
greentiger87
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Location: Houston, TX - 9a
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Just to add, Oxidate is not just hydrogen peroxide. It's been a while since I've read the patent, but it also has peroxyacetic acid (sometimes called peracetic acid) at a rate of "no more than 5%". Peracetic acid is pretty scary stuff, which is why the safety precautions listed for Oxidate are extremely thorough. It remains very effective even at a low concentration. It's listed on the MSDS.

I can't fathom why they choose to call it hydrogen dioxide. It's truly bizarre. The only reason I can come up with is to make sure people don't think they can substitute drugstore peroxide, which seems really petty. The fact that they don't list peracetic acid as the active ingredient is more transparent, but still frustrating.

Peracetic acid is made by combining glacial acetic acid (virtually 100% acetic acid) and very concentrated hydrogen peroxide (up to 90%) in the presence of sulfuric acid as a catalyst. Mixing table vinegar (5% acetic acid) and drugstore hydrogen peroxide (3%) will not produce any significant amount of peracetic acid, and any produced will quickly decompose.

Other likely ingredients are some kind of surfactant (probably non-ionic), acetic acid (to stabilize the peracetic acid), and a chelator (like EDTA, to bind metal ions that can decompose both hydrogen peroxide and peracetic acid).
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