Skunk Chemistry

One of my students sent this site. It is great because it describes the components of skunk spray and how use chemistry to get rid of the odor. As I mentioned in one of the lecture sections, I worked with mercaptans (thiols) during my postdoc and they were just terrible. I had to do my reactions late at night with a bleach trap (to oxidize the mercaptan (S-H) to a sulfonic acid -these don't smell too bad ) After doing my reactions though, I would be travelling home on the bus and I would notice this faint, but distinctive, disagreeable odor. It took me a couple days to realize that it was me (no wonder no one would sit near me)!!!

http://www.humboldt.edu/~wfw2/chemofskunkspray.html

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