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Molecules: You'd better learn to live with them.
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Category: Explosives
Posted on: April 2, 2008 11:29 PM, by Molecule of the Day
Benzoyl peroxide is funny. As a commenter mentioned yesterday, it's used in skin care.
It's a potent oxidizer (and will quickly do a number on reducing agents like hydroquinone, which is the reason for the warning mentioned). Potent enough that it's an explosive. At 2.5-10% concentration, however, it's used in creams as an antimicrobial agent in the treatment of acne.
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Comments
You might be interested in the fact that I have started to add your blog posts directly to ChemSpider so that your blogs link directly to structure records.
http://www.chemspider.com/blog/molecule-of-the-day-making-it-structure-searchable.html
It would be easier for me if you could add yourself..it's about a 60 second operation...very simple...
Posted by: ChemSpiderMan | April 3, 2008 12:40 AM
Thats the stuff that was falling off the teenagers face and bleaching out the carpets. I thought I remembered it ruining the paint jobs in auto body shops. Odd that skin can tolerate it at all.
Posted by: BlindSquirrel | April 3, 2008 12:56 AM
On the topic of skin care, I've always wondered what the hell half the things in my cosmetics/shampoo/etc. actually are. Do the "hydrolyzed silk proteins" in my shampoo do anything for silky, shiny hair or does the phrase just sound good?
Posted by: Cynthia | April 3, 2008 1:38 AM
Thanks! Very interesting stuff!
Posted by: katie | April 3, 2008 9:21 AM
Cynthia, you might want to check out this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Theres-Antifreeze-Your-Toothpaste/dp/1556526970/
I'm currently reading it, it explains all kinds of stuff about food and cosmetics chemistry. It doesn't pull any punches, skeletal formulas are displayed prominently in their full glory. It's written for the layman, though, and is generally easy to understand.
Posted by: Mark | April 3, 2008 10:45 AM
It's so amazing how this molecule can be that bad for our health.....it's really good to know more about this little things that may be really dangerous at the end.....
Posted by: Brenda Caceres | April 3, 2008 12:29 PM
Adolescent skin care, like Gaul, arrives in three parts: Camouflage, sebum annihalation, global antisepsis. One might imagine topically applied clay plus torcetrapib (perhaps ezetimibe), plus benzalkonium chloride would be the hat trick. Benzoyl peroxide is cheap and effective. For the guys, their face cream can subsitute for the tube of Bondo cure. The reverse is a bad idea.
Anything polymeric (and a bit humectant) that adsorbs onto hair makes it "nicer," beaten eggs to polar-modified silicones to extract of wombat placenta. A little bit of propylene glycol post-wash is very interesting. Cosmetics' singular goal is a promise of better results (distaff confreres' eyes green with envy, macho men with platinum Amex cards) if only the woman would pay more for the better product. Then, recursion.
Upscale from clay base is h-boron nitride. Somehow that seems a little weird.
Posted by: Uncle Al | April 3, 2008 1:35 PM