Re: how much vinegar & baking soda is needed to maximize the production of CO2

You always get "maximized" CO2 production in this reaction, because if you put baking soda and vinegar together, CO2 is produced until either all the baking soda is gone or all the acetic acid (the active ingredient in vinegar) is gone.

But normally, because vinegar is a 5% solution by weight, while baking soda is a pure solid, you have baking soda left over. The other thing to remember is that baking soda takes some time and stirring to dissolve in water... my Merck Index says its solubility is one part to ten parts water.

Since vinegar is mostly water, you want to weigh out (for example) 10 grams of baking soda and 150 mL of vinegar (to give you enough extra water that the soda will dissolve in a short time). Combine the two and stir until it no longer fizzes and all the baking soda is dissolved. (Of course, when you combine the vinegar and soda you may want to allow some room in the container so it doesn't fizz all over your table top.)

To find out how much vinegar is needed to react with 10 grams of baking soda, you need to know the molecular mass of sodium bicarbonate, the molecular mass of acetic acid, and how to use moles to calculate quantities for a chemical reaction. All those things can be found in textbooks and reference books.

Dan Berger