How Do Mentos Affect The Geysers

When you put Mentos in Diet Coke, the surface of the Mento allows carbon dioxide bubbles to form, as this happens the Diet Coke “explodes” out of the bottle (Hiskey). This reaction can result in large geysers of Diet Coke. As the Mentos candy sinks, carbon dioxide bubbles form on the surface, more and more bubbles from until they eventually shoot out of the bottle (Science Buddies). This experiment is well known and many people have done it before, but most do not know the reactions that cause the geysers.
The surface of Mentos candy is very rough, which allows carbon dioxide bubbles to form (Wayne Schmidt’s Mentos). The carbon dioxide in Diet Coke looks for any tiny bumps, which are called nucleation sites, that it can grab a hold of. The surface of a Mentos is sprayed with microscopic layers of liquid sugar, which means that it has many nucleation sites that the carbon dioxide can grab onto. When the Mentos candy is dropped in the soda, it allows a large number of bubbles to form around it. The Mentos candy reacts the whole time that it sinks, which allows it to make the famous Diet Coke Geyser (“Watch Videos”). …show more content…
One of these reasons is that the gelatinous ingredients in the Mentos react to the aspartame in the Diet Coke. The surface tension ends up being lowered, allowing more bubbles to form in the Mento. The higher the surface tension of the liquid, the harder it is for the bubbles to form (“Why Do Mentos”).
The reactions that cause Diet Coke and Mentos geysers are related to the surface of the candy and the ingredients in the candy and soda. The gelatin and the aspartame react which can create these geysers (“What Do Mentos”). The surface of the Mentos candy creates near perfect spots for carbonation bubbles to form (Wayne Schmidt’s Mentos). These are the reactions that cause the geyser effect to