Author: Dutchy
Date: 2006-11-23 13:49
Peroxide is a weak acid, same as acetic acid (it's interesting to note that "water" appears on the link's table of "Common Weak Acids".)
Most table vinegars are 4 to 8% acetic acid; over-the-counter hydrogen peroxide is 3%. So when you're soaking a reed for a few minutes in hydrogen peroxide, it's causing about as much damage as soaking it in vinegar.
And when you're quickly dipping it in peroxide to disinfect it, you're causing about as much damage as quickly dipping it in vinegar would.
On the Intro to H202 website, it says that a concentration of 0% peroxide has a pH of 7.0 (neutral), while a concentration of 10% has a pH of 5.3. Since the over-the-counter concentration that we're talking about here is 3%, I would put the pH of it at closer to the "neutral" end than to the "acid" end of the pH scale.
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