Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

my project is:
Which common materials (e.g., paper, foam, cloth, vinyl) produce the worst smoke/air pollution when burned?

I'm trying to figure out the best way to measure the smoke/air pollution
I also need general help on what I should do for the project and what I should research.

Thanks!

This sounds like a very interesting project! However, I'm unsure about how you could measure the smoke/air pollution produced without using expensive laboratory equipment. Perhaps another Expert has some ideas?

For background research I suggest you investigate what type of pollutants are formed when different materials are burned and their health effects. You will probably find out about SOx and NOx emissions as well as soot and carcinogenic compounds. Through your research you may be able to determine a method to measure one or two of these pollutants that you could obtain the equipment for.

As a reference, Wikipedia has a nice list of methods for measuring smoke that may be of some help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke#Measurement_of_smoke

Good luck!

Audrey

I agree with Audrey, this is an interesting area to study. I searched in our Science Fair Project area and found a project that might have some features that would be useful to you, here is the URL

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p009.shtml

Also, you might try to figure out how to use a home smoke detector. What I am thinking of is something like starting a controlled burn of various substances in a closed box in which the smoke detector is located and seeing how long it takes to trigger the alarm. I don't know if this is a good idea or not -- the result might depend to much on how fast the fire gets going, which could be hard to control. Maybe heating samples of various materials in a flame-proof flask at a controlled rate until they start smoking wold be easier to control?

Another idea would be to create a laser scattering device using a photographic light meter to measure how much laser light is scattered sideways out of the path of the laser by the smoke. Again, creating the smoke in a controlled way would seem to be a problem.

As you can see, this would be rather challenging, but challenges can be rewarding I have always found.

One VERY IIMPORTANT POINT: burning various compounds will produce toxic fumes!! Great caution must be exercised for the safety of yourself and others. If you decide to experiment further, please do so at school in a lab with adult supervision. A fume hood would be very desirable; alternatively you could set up your test system, whatever it turns out to be, outdoors. Also, be sure you have a suitable fire extinguisher handy and that you know how to use it. Don't even think about doing any experiments with burning/smoldering materials by yourself!

Hope this helps, and good luck with selecting your research topic.

Johns CAUTIONS are important, Audrey on this interesting topic. Exploration of the photdetector method by using a home smoke detector in a fume hood or outdoors with fire extinguisher at hand could provide some interesting data. A National Institute Science and Technology NIST link is provided: http://www.nist.gov/el/fire_protection/ ... r-4020.cfm that may be helpful in quantifying 'worst'.

As audreyln posted , 2 of the techniques in the Wikipedia link are fairly strait forward. I would suggest the optical obscuring method. With a photographers light detector, you could easily burn equal amounts of test material in a clear box and measure the decrease in measured light from a source shined through from the other side. Also, a photon detector could be made using a photovoltaic cell attached to a voltmeter. It would take some calibrating, but you could potentially relate output voltage to smoke density.

Hope this helps,
theborg