baking soda is supposed to absorb odors. there is no real physical reason for baking soda to do that. it hasn't got a lot of pores like activated carbon. nothing special about surface charges. the solution, if there really is one, must be some kind of chem reaction.
is there a real chemical reason for baking soda to absorb odors and what might it be?
Roger S
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Baking soda does not actually absorb odors like powdered charcoal would. Rather, there are chemical reactions which change the odor molecules. Consumers supposedly know very little chemistry, so manufacturers put things into very simple terms. Then again, engineers and businessmen don't necessarily know chemistry either, so are probably about as ignorant as consumers.
///////////////////// how it work
Baking soda is the Sodium salt of a weak acid and has the formula NaHCO3. Many unpleasent odors are the result of a class of compounds known as short chain carboxylic acids. Old sweatsocks and goats smell the way they do because of a compound known as capronic acid. These acids are volitile and when exposed to baking soda, they form their own Sodium salt and Carbonic acid, which then decomposes into CO2 and water:
CH3(CH2)3CO2H + NaHCO3 -> CH3(CH2)3CO2Na + H2CO3
H2CO3 -> H2O + CO2 (Carbonic acid decomposes)
The Sodium salt of Capronic acid isn't volitile like the acid form and has very little odor. Water and CO2 are completely odorless.
Baking soda would probably have very little effect on another class of smelly compounds, amines. These form when protein decomposes. Ethyl amine smells somewhat like rotten fish. It also forms when fish fry. To decrease the amount of amines in frying fish, an acid can be added, forming an ammonium salt which is non-volitile. This is why lemon juice is often used when cooking fish. The citric acid reacts with the amines and forms ammonium citrate compounds.
AFAIK: Armond Hammer ("Arm and Hammer") was a socialist and probably disaproved of free market capitalism.
edanddeb98
There are activated carbon pellets that are designed to absorb odors
Baking soda can neutralize unpleasant airborne odors (because odors are usually acid-based, much like sour milk smelling bad) because it chemically neutralizes them. Baking soda also works on our own body odors, pet urine odors or the mouth-plaque that causes bad-breath.
Other products often rely on added fragrances which mask odors; with baking soda such odors are actually gone because the offensive smell has been absorbed.
cardamone
besides the undeniable fact that Baking soda incorporates Carbon it is not seen as an organic and organic compound. because of the fact an organic and organic compound could primarly be an covalent compound yet baking soda is an ionic compound. There are lot extra variations that makes baking soda an inorganic compound