Ozone Results
Creighton University
Part 7. Ozone and other foods, household substances and office supplies

February, 2006

Ozone generator built in the spirit of Professor Steve Thompson’s (Colorado State University) microscale architecture.


Note: With each pair of figures, the left one has not been treated with ozone while the right one has been exposed for the duration noted.  The ozone was delivered at a rate of about 800 nmol/min.
From left: rubber band (15 min); beet juice (1 drop/5 mL water; 5 minute exposure); Cherry Coke (1 mL + 2 mL water; 30 minute exposure); green Kool Aid (5 mL/5 mL water; 15 minute exposure); red Kool Aid (1 mL + 3 mL water; 15 minute exposure); Hot Pink office paper  (moistened, 10 minutes)


Some of the products tested: From left: Vess Whistle Orange Soda, Aunt Nellie's Red Cabbage, Campbell's Tomato juice, Welch's grape concentrate, Indian Summer Cherry juice, Maraschino cherry juice, Del Monte Sliced Carrots juice, Vlassic Polish Dill Spear Pickle juice, Early California ripe olive juice, Diet Mountain Dew Code Red, Welsh's Cranberry juice cocktail and Cherry Coke


Note: With each pair of figures, the left one has not been treated with ozone while the right one has been exposed for the duration noted.  The ozone was delivered at a rate of about 800 nmol/min.
From left: Maraschino cherry juice (1 mL + 5 mL water; 16 minute exposure); Dill pickle juice (not diluted; 23 minute exposure); Indian Summer cherry juice (1 mL + 4 mL water; 20 minute exposure); tomato juice (1 mL + 5 mL water; 15 minute exposure); black olive juice  (1 mL + 1 mL water, 10 minutes)


Note: With each pair of figures, the left one has not been treated with ozone while the right one has been exposed for the duration noted.  The ozone was delivered at a rate of about 800 nmol/min.
From left: Welch's cranberry juice cocktail (1 mL + 5 mL water; 34 minute exposure); Diet Mountain Dew Code red (1 mL + 3 mL; 15 minute exposure); Vess Whistle Orange Flavored Soda (1 mL + 5 mL water; 20 minute exposure); red cabbage juice (1 mL + 3 mL water; 10 minute exposure); carrot juice  (pure; 30 minute exposure); Welch's grape juice concentrate (1 mL + 10 mL; 15 minute exposure)


Moldy cheese: The mold colony was cut in half with a razor.  The right piece was exposed to ozone (800 nmol/min) for 1 hour.  The green-gray color of the mold turned white.  The picture above was taken 3 days after the experiment: no active mold colony has reappeared.


In these experiments, various office papers were exposed to ozone.  Note 1: Pictures above and below are in the same order and show the same results.  The image above shows the paper strips in the test tubes as they were during the experiment.  The image below shows the same strips outside of the test tubes.  Note 2: With each pair of figures, the left one has not been treated with ozone while the right one has been exposed for the duration noted.  Note 3: The ozone was delivered at a rate of about 800 nmol/min. Note 4: Strips exposed to ozone were moistened prior to exposure (if this is not done, the reaction is very slow.) 

From left: hot pink paper; purple  from front page of Chem13 News; red from cover of Chem13 News; cosmic orange; gemini green; solar yellow; re-entry red; venus violet; green copy paper; blue office paper; pink post-it note


Here is a photo of wood shavings exposed to ozone for 30 minutes.  The wood started out completely "white" as it was cut from a piece of lumber (pine).  In some places, such as the right end of the bigger piece of the two making an "X" and most of the lower piece, a significant amount of the wood is still white.  The very thin shaving (upper right) and both pieces making the "X" are significantly darkened.




Fall 2006:



Here is a piece of silver, shown about actual size.  The left half was covered with Scotch tape to protect the surface from exposure to ozone.  The silver was placed in a small beaker and covered with laboratory film.  Ozone was discharged into the beaker; the capilliary delivery tube was positioned nearest the upper right corner.  Notice the tarnishing that has taken place.  The discoloration is narrow along the upper part and about as wide as the unprotected (by tape) area along the lower right half. The exposure  time that gave this result was less than 10 minutes.