Page 20 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

Oxidising agents
Oxidising agents are commonplace around the home, in uses as diverse as cleaning wounds, sticking objects together and bleaching hair. Here are some examples of domestic oxidation reactions in action.
 The two components of this wood adhesive include a resin and an oxidising agent.
Resin
Adhesives
Many adhesives work by mixing two components together to produce a quick- setting compound. Often the reaction is between a resin (a dough-like material that can be moulded in the hands) and an oxidising agent, which is able to initiate the polymerising reaction and which is kept carefully in a tube. This is a very powerful chemical reaction and the oxidising agent is quite able to oxidise (corrode) skin, which accounts for the caution labels on the tube.
Many other adhesives set more slowly. In this case the oxygen from the air is used to oxidise the adhesive (a form of liquid plastic), often causing the adhesive units to gather together in a tangled mass of chains. This is the process of polymerisation, and it happens commonly with carbon-based adhesives, the kind that come in a tube and have a strong solvent smell (and caution remarks telling you not to inhale the fumes in a closed room).
Oxidising agent
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