Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: Don_1 on 28/05/2009 12:02:22
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Mrs 'er indoors had me cleaning the oven the other day. How I hate that job!!!
It's supposed to be a 'self cleaning' oven, so why do I still get such dirty water when I clean it?
What is it coated with and why doesn't it work?
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A self-cleaning oven is an oven which uses high temperature (approximately 900 degrees Fahrenheit or 500 degrees Celsius) to burn off leftovers from baking, without the use of any chemical agents.
The walls of self-cleaning ovens are coated with materials acting as oxidation catalysts, usually in the form of catalyst particles in a binder matrix. Cerium(IV) oxide is one of the common materials used. Other possibilities are copper, vanadium, bismuth, molybdenum, manganese, iron, nickel, tin, niobium, chromium, tungsten, rhenium, platinum, cobalt, and their oxides, either alone or in mixtures. Highly active coatings typically contain a copper oxide, manganese oxide or cobalt oxide, and copper and manganese oxides are often used together. The binder may be a fluoropolymer or an enamel frit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-cleaning_ovens