(c) Anthony K. Grafton 2003

Better Smelling Through Chemistry

What do you do if your favorite dog gets sprayed by a skunk? Staying far away from it for a long time is certainly one option. And according to popular legend, bathing the dog in tomato juice is supposed to help. But this really just ends up giving you a tomato-colored dog that still smells bad. So how can chemistry come to the rescue?

A chemist named Paul Krebaum from Lisle, Illinois, came up with a simple solution to the problem of removing skunk odor. His idea was to chemically alter the compounds that make the bad smells, and developed a way to do it using three simple household items. To make up a batch of Mr. Krebaum’s anti-skunk spray, mix together (always with the help of an adult!) 1 quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup of baking soda, and

1 teaspoon of liquid soap

The resulting fresh solution can be applied to the offending pet (or clothing, or whatever else might otherwise have to be discarded if the smell can’t be removed) and simply washed off with water. Once this is done, virtually all the skunk odor will be gone! What happens is that the baking soda and hydrogen peroxide react chemically to produce bubbles of oxygen. The reactive oxygen gas then combines with the molecules that cause the bad odor, converting them to something less noxious in a process called oxidation.

The ingredients for this wonderful mixture cost only a couple of dollars, but you won’t find pre-made anti-skunk spray on the store shelves. When the ingredients are mixed, the oxygen bubbles are produced immediately, and the resulting gas pressure would pop open any container. In addition, when the ingredients are done reacting, no more oxygen is produced and the solution loses its ability to clean the smell. These two facts mean that if you want to remove skunk odor, you’ll have to do a little safe kitchen chemistry.