The density of smoke droplets produced by thermal degradation of organic solids

✍ Scribed by Peter J. Lipowicz; Simon J. Rothenberg

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 211 KB
• Volume: 75
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-2180
• DOI: 10.1016/0010-2180(89)90098-9

✦ Synopsis

Thermal degradation of organic solids in the absence of flame produces smoke composed of spherical liquid droplets of pyrolyzate derived from the parent material. The density of these droplets is typically not known and is often assumed to be 1 g/cm 3. In this work we employed a density-measurement technique used previously to measure the density of cigarette smoke droplets. The technique involves the measurement of the mass and volume of individual particles in a Millikan cell. Smoke was generated from milligram samples of material heated in a thermogravimetric analyzer in an atmosphere of air. The materials used were red oak, cellulose, and glucose, and the respective particle densities were found to be 1.30, 1.49, and 1.41 g/cm 3. These densities are significantly greater than unity and approach the densities of the parent materials.