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Topic: h2o2  (Read 3331 times)

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Offline holty1

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h2o2
« on: July 30, 2011, 03:04:25 PM »
as part of research for an attempt at fiction writing could anybody help with the scientific side of a plot idea. what, if anything, could trigger a mutation in H2O molecules to transform them into H2O2 molecules? and what would be the implications on a worldwide scale if this started to happen? please forgive the simple approach but i have absolutely zero background in all things science but the idea needs to be plausible for the book to work, thanks.

Offline opti384

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Re: h2o2
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2011, 02:15:12 AM »
Can you live without water?

Offline holty1

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Re: h2o2
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2011, 03:56:25 AM »
no, that's the point. it's an end of the world type novel. it has to start off in a small area but spread across the globe. what i need is a catalyst or an event that triggers that change which would be plausible. obviously it's a fiction story so it doesn't need to be possible..just plausible!

Offline fledarmus

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Re: h2o2
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2011, 08:23:25 AM »
Perhaps you could go the other way? Prevent the peroxide from breaking down rather than forming more? Hydrogen peroxide is produced by every organism that uses oxygen in metabolism, and almost all of those organisms also have an enzyme called a peroxidase that breaks it down so it doesn't build up to dangerous levels in the organism. A virus that managed to deactivate the peroxidase enzymes would cause lethal buildups of peroxides.

For physical processes, to go from water to peroxide would require a strong oxidizer. Ozone is theoretically strong enough to accomplish that task, although I haven't actually seen a reference that it reacts that way. Perhaps a process that formed massive amounts of atmospheric ozone could generate substantial quantities of hydrogen peroxide from atmospheric water. If that process occurs, electrical discharges in moist atmospheres might also theoretically form hydrogen peroxide.

As for the implications on a world wide scale, there would be catastrophic effects long before a simple lack of water became an issue. Hydrogen peroxide is a strong oxidizing agent - anything that currently rusts or decomposes by physical oxidative processes would be sped up. Rubbers and plastics would rapidly decompose.

Offline holty1

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Re: h2o2
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2011, 12:40:59 AM »
excellent! that's got the creative juices flowing, thanks. any other info greatly appreciated

Offline Jasim

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Re: h2o2
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2011, 04:10:33 PM »
Reminds me of Ice Nine by Vonnegut.

I love the way you talk about water 'mutating', lol. I guess that's what chemists do, mutate molecules?

Erm, sorry, was there a question somewhere in there?


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