How Does Thioglycolate Hair Remover Work?

Biology, Chemistry
Hair: men bemoan its loss and women fret over its appearance. For decades during the 20th Century, women were enamored by the so-called permanent wave. The most common process for assuring permanency of a hairstyle obtained at the beauty parlor involved a chemical process involving thioglycolate. See, Permanent Wave: Chem-mystery of Curl. By Extension... Although this process was used, not to remove hair, but to beautify it, by extension, a closely related process has been used to eliminate hair that grows¹ in undesired places. Notice this chemical reaction that occurs when thioglycolate is used to remove hair². 2 HOOC-CH₂-SH + R-S-S-R → HOOC-CH₂-S-S-CH₂-COOH + 2 R-SH The above reaction reads: two thioglycolic acid molecules plus one cystine (disulfide hair bond) produces two dithioglycolic acid molecules and two cysteine molecules. To…
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Important Differences between Lime and Limestone

Chemistry
[caption id="attachment_7743" align="alignright" width="480"] Lime stripes on football field.[/caption] I feel certain everyone has heard, whether in the realm of gardening or in the realm of sports, the words lime and limestone. Perhaps without even consciously thinking of it, these two words have been considered by many to be synonymous. Yet they are by no means synonymous. Lime Lime is used in delineating the zones and yard lines of a football field. Lime is a fine white powder. It is occasionally spread thinly over lawns as well. What is lime chemically speaking? It is calcium oxide, chemical formula CaO. By slaking lime with water, one obtains, naturally, slaked lime! Slaked lime has the chemical formula Ca(OH)2. The slaking of lime is written, in shorthand, CaO + H2O → Ca(OH)2 +…
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