Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff works dot com where smart Happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, what is silica gel? And why do I find little packets of it? And everything I buy? Little packets of silica gel are found in all sorts of products. Because silica gel is a desiccated it adds orbs and holds water vapor in leather products and foods like pepperoni. The lack of moisture can limit the growth of mold and
reduce spoilage in electronics. It prevents condensation, which might damage the electronics. If a bottle of vitamins contain any moisture vapor and cooled rapidly, the condensing moisture would ruin the pills. You'll find little silica gel packets in anything that would be affected by excess moisture condensation. Silica gel is nearly harmless,
which is why you find it in food products. Silica or silicon dioxide is the same material found in quartz that all form contains millions of tiny pores that can add zorb and hold moisture. Silica gel is essentially porous sand.
Silica gel can add zorb about its weight and moisture and can take the relative humidity in a closed container down to about Once saturated, you can drive the moisture off and reuse silica gel by heating it in an oven above three hundred degrees fahrenheit or about a hundred and fifty degrees c. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send me an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, go to how stuff works dot com.