In December 2024
Answer to Question #87931 in General Chemistry for Steph
Solution.
Ethylene oxide belongs to the class of dihydric alcohols, and ethylene oxide belongs to the class of epoxides. Ethylene oxide has a mutagenic effect, and ethylene glycol is less toxic. Polyethylene glycol is obtained by subjecting ethylene oxide to alkali catalysts and glycols. Therefore, ethylene oxide can be found in polyethylene glycol. If no number follows polyethylene glycol while reading it on the ingredient label, then the ingredient contains ethylene oxide solution, which gradually turns into polyethylene glycol according to the following reaction equation:
nCH2-O-CH2 + H2O = HO-(CH2-CH2-O)n-H
Answer:
Ethylene oxide belongs to the class of dihydric alcohols, and ethylene oxide belongs to the class of epoxides. Ethylene oxide has a mutagenic effect, and ethylene glycol is less toxic. Polyethylene glycol is obtained by subjecting ethylene oxide to alkali catalysts and glycols. Therefore, ethylene oxide can be found in polyethylene glycol. If no number follows polyethylene glycol while reading it on the ingredient label, then the ingredient contains ethylene oxide solution, which gradually turns into polyethylene glycol according to the following reaction equation:
nCH2-O-CH2 + H2O = HO-(CH2-CH2-O)n-H
#339914 on Dec 2023
Comments
Dear Steph, Questions in this section are answered for free. We can't fulfill them all and there is no guarantee of answering certain question but we are doing our best. And if answer is published it means it was attentively checked by experts. You can try it yourself by publishing your question. Although if you have serious assignment that requires large amount of work and hence cannot be done for free you can submit it as assignment and our experts will surely assist you.
Thank you for answering my question. I used lotion containing 90 percent polyethylene glycol on me and my family . Does this mean it had 90 percent ethylene oxide in it? I’m very worried about cancer from this. We went through two bottles of the cream before I realized the ingredient wasn’t safe.
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