What are the ingredients in Mentos and coke which cause a chemical reaction?

Answer 1

This reaction is an example of the dissolved gas (carbon dioxide) within Diet Coke, quickly bubbling out of solution as a result of Mentos being dropped in.

The surface of Mentos candies are high in surface area, and are bumpy and pitted. Bumpy surfaces tend to "seed" bubbles out of carbonated drinks. What is meant by "seeding" this means is that when a gas is dissolved in a solution, it remains within the solution in microscopic bubbles. If there is an area where these microscopic bubbles can gather, they will do so to create a larger bubble (due to the hydrophobic effect). Areas that promote these microscopic bubbles to gather are called "seeds". Eventually the bubble will be too large to simply stay in solution and begin to rise to the surface, often as a visible tiny bubble. This is the same reason why after pouring yourself a glass of your favorite carbonated beverage, you may see small bubbling trails seemingly coming from the side of the glass out of nowhere. The "source" or origin of the bubbling is likely a small imperfection of the glass seeding bubbles.

When you drop the Mentos in, the carbon dioxide bubbles in the soda becomes seeded all over the entire surface of the candy's surface. Due to its high surface area, it seeds millions of bubbles at once, creating rapid gas release from solution. Additionally, gum Arabic coating the surface of the candy acts as a surfactant, decreasing surface tension of the bubbles on its surface. Low surface tension also helps bubbles grow quickly. Aspartame (the artificial sweetener in diet coke) also works as a surfactant in solution, further decreasing surface area and increasing bubbling. Finally, Mentos are also fairly dense and sink rapidly, quickly creating bubbles that seed further bubbles as they rise, creating an exponential effect as the bubbles rise to the surface, as the bubbles are given more time to gather more bubbles as they rise.

If you like explosions, try this!

Answer 2

Ordinarily, water resists the expansion of bubbles in the soda. Water molecules attract each other strongly, and they link together to form a tight mesh around each bubble. It takes energy to push water molecules away from each other to form a new bubble, or to expand a bubble that has already been formed. The phenomenon is called "surface tension".

Now drop a Mentos into the soda. The Gelatin and gum Arabic from the dissolving candy disrupts the water mesh, so it takes less work to expand bubbles. At the same time, the roughness of the candy surface provides many little nooks and crannies that allow new bubbles to form more quickly (a process called nucleation). As more of the surface dissolves, both processes accelerate, and foam rapidly begins to form.

From http://Antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/consumer/faq/mentos.shtml

Answer 3

Because of the extra ingredient, aspertame. I saw this after I did an experiment, and Diet Coke exploded the most with the Mentos. After i chicked the ingredients, i saw that only Diet Coke has this ingredient.

Answer 4

+the ingredient in coke that react with mentos ingredients are:

1-your mom

2-your big left foot toe

3-ur left butt cheek

4-ur hair

and lost but not least

5-UR PENIS

Answer 5

Diet Coke and Mentos eruption is caused by the reaction of the carbonation of the Coke and the candy's release of carbon dioxide as it starts to melt. These two mixed together cause an eruption of foam.

Answer 6

Fizzy! Carbon dioxide is released at a crazy rate so the coke normally shoots up into the air while it breaks down the mentos exterior.

Answer 7

Carbon Dioxide (CO2)