Resumen de An Alternative to Recycling: Measurement of Combustion Enthalpies of Plastics via Bomb Calorimetry
Benjamin J. Knurr, James F. Hauri
For the past century, humans have been increasingly dependent on plastics, but have not developed adequate disposal practices. In this lab, students are asked whether burning plastic for energy seems like a reasonable disposal technique. To answer the chemical aspects of this question, students use bomb calorimetry to quantify the combustion energy of various plastics. The students confirmed the quality of their data by comparing their results from this experiment with current literature values for various plastic combustions. Their results also show that some plastics contain comparable amounts of energy to that of current fossil fuel and biofuel sources and that the energy content of the plastics vary predictably depending on the presence of oxygen in the polymer structure. At the conclusion of the experiment, students will not only have learned the technique of bomb calorimetry but will have also gained insight into whether burning plastic for energy makes sense from a chemical energy perspective.
