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HEC Based Recipe[]
Hello!
I cooked this recipe but it was very watery. No sign of viscoucity at all, so I wanted to confirm if I read the recipe right. This is what I used:
16 parts very warm tap water ----> 500 ml
1 part Dawn Pro dishwashing liquid ---> 31.25 ml
8 grams of Dow Cellosize QP100MH (HEC) per gallon of water (not per gallon of juice) --> 1.06 g
3.2 grams of baking soda per gallon of water --> 0.43 g
1.6 grams of citric acid per gallon of water ---> 0.21 g
The only ingredient which differs is the HEC, I got it from my pharmacist and he didnt know the brand. Should I take more of that? and are my calculations right? :(
thanks!
- It is critical when following any of these recipes to use the specified version of the polymer. QP100MH is the most viscous commercially-available version of HEC. There are a few that are similar but most are quite a bit less viscous. Can your pharmacist find out what he gave you? Adjusting the recipe without knowing anything what type of HEC you have will require a lot of trial and error. Did the recipe work at all? I have used some HEC that requires 3 times the quantity that I have specified -- but if the HEC you have has a low enough molecular weight you might need to use even more. Do you have a small plastic bubble wand like the ones that come in bottles of bubble solution for kids? If so, when you have the right amount fo the polymer, you should get 10 to 20 bubbles per dip of the small wand when blowing gently. If you can find out from your pharmacist the HEC type that you have, let me know as it would be very helpful and I might be able to give you an estimate of how much you would need.
- Take a look through the site for more information about HEC and more blog entries. When reading the blog entries, you will also see video of quite a few HEC-based solutions. In one of the blog entries, I mention the time that it takes this solution to drain from a 20 ml syringe (and also the time for water to drain). You can use that information to help find the starting point for this particular HEC. Please note, with low molecular weight that you might need more viscosity than I needed with the QP100MH. You will see in the blogs that when I used a much lower viscosity type of HEC that the viscosity of the solution that worked was quite a bit higher than what worked with QP100MH
- Espiegel123 15:59, June 14, 2011 (UTC)
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- Hey, me again, I forgot to mention that I also dont use Dawn Pro but instead some cheap dish washing soap called "blik". I ll try another one called "Pril" which is a "quality" dish washing soap.
- Still I tried it again with the cheap one, but added twice as many HEC into the mix. All i can get barely 5 bubbles out of one blow with a small wand. It also looks like the bubbles are really tense, not all wobbly and chilled like in your videos. Like the surface tension is really high.
- Should I double citrus and soda too? or is it all about the HEC or the dish washing soap?
- btw i managed to get ahold of Natrosol and some highly concentrated amphoteric (65%) and non-ionic (55%) tenside! maybe i can replace the dish washing soap with pure bubbling detergentness?
- done with the "pril" solution.. i waiting for it to cool of. next up: syringe test
- ==== Above by anonymous contributor==========
- What country are you in?
- The detergent is critical. If you don't use a decent detergent, you won't get decent bubbles. If you are in the U.S. use you can use any Dawn or Joy except for Dawn Direct Foam. But other brands of detergent are likely to yield poor quality bubbles. There seems to be a consensus that the dish detergents from Procter and Gamble are far superior to any other brands. If you visit, the SBF archives, you will see countless people who had bad results until they switched to an appropriate detergent. It is very hard to get decent bubbles if you work directly from surfactants from what I understand which is why very few people are doing it.
- With a small wand, the bubbles will be tense. Even with my solutions. It is the nature of bubbles. So, with a small plastic wand, your bubbles will be tense. The larger the bubble, the more relaxed the skin is since the pressure inside the bubble gets smaller as the bubbles get bigger.
- Which type of Natrosol did you get?
- Espiegel123 23:26, June 20, 2011 (UTC)
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- I'm in austria and there is no fairy or dawn here, so I'm trying every detergent I can get my paws on.
- I also tried a some underdog commercial mixture which contained JLube and other stuff. When I blew bubbles with my small wand, any bubble, big or small, was very wobbly.
- I got Natrosol 250 HX. its the same as HR but disperse better (says google).
- The HEC I already have seems to be fine. Syringe test worked out like in your blog.
- Tomorrow I'll get some more none-brand detergents from cheap stores, maybe I get lucky and some of those are imported from somewhere else where dawn is known under a different name.
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- Do they have Dreft in Austria? If you haven't done so, ask on the SBF, the Soap Bubble Fanciers Yahoo Group (RIP), about detergents available in Austria. I seem to recall that in Europe it is possible to get Procter & Gamble detergents via Amazon.com. You may be able to find out what the Procter & Gamble detergent is in Austria by visiting: http://www.pg.com/de_DE/ If you ask on SBF, someone will be sure to know how you can get a Procter and Gamble dish detergent. It will be worth it. I have not heard of anyone getting comparable results with anything else.
- Espiegel123 23:26, June 20, 2011 (UTC)
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- Oh god, amazon! why didnt I think of this earlier! I totally ordered 2 litres last night but it will take 5 days :( anyway, I am pretty sure its the right stuff http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00461L88M/ref=ox_ya_os_product If i get my recipes right with this, I finaly have something to compare to!! yesss
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- finally! it worked!! thats the real stuff!! awesome. now on to some real experimentation!