Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Decomposition of ethanol

InFormation - 20-3-2011 at 00:44

Hi everyone! I was hoping some people could pitch in and help me with a little joke I had in mind...

I was wondering if there was some sort of safe-to-consume compound that could act as a sort of 'catalyst' (not necessarily in the literal sense) to breaking down ethanol in an alcoholic beverage to, say, acetic acid. The drink still has to be perfectly safe to drink (save for the potentially awful flavor) - remember this is a hypothetical joke, not a felony! Bonus points if it was almost undetectable (didn't change the flavor much) as I don't think parties involved would be incredibly impressed to find that their 'investment' was 'sabotaged'. ;)

All suggestions and comments are welcome.

unionised - 20-3-2011 at 02:35

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetobacter
But it may take a while.

InFormation - 20-3-2011 at 04:35

Quote: Originally posted by unionised  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetobacter
But it may take a while.


That is perfect! Thankyou!

... Though some chemical solutions wouldn't be bad either. :)

[Edited on 20-3-2011 by InFormation]

redox - 25-4-2011 at 14:16

It looks like you are searching for an oxidizer that is completely nontoxic....yeah right!

Ozone - 25-4-2011 at 14:32

H2O2? Kind of tricky at the acidic pH (where peroxide is quite stable) of most drinks, though.

spirocycle - 8-5-2011 at 06:54

then just use peroxide with a weak base (bicarb or something)