3 ms·
Plastics tend to consists of carbon and hydrogen chains. See for example polycarbonate [1], polyetene [2] and ABS [3] (contains nitrogen). They might however co
by msl 9y ago
Plastics tend to consists of carbon and hydrogen chains. See for example polycarbonate [1], polyetene [2] and ABS [3] (contains nitrogen). They might however contain all sorts of additives. In order to produce just water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen the burning must be carefully controlled [4] - in your experiment the burning was probably not complete, which explains the fumes (that might have been carcinogenic [4]).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarbonate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarbonate
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylonitrile_butadiene_styrene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylonitrile_butadiene_styren...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic#Incineration_of_plastics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic#Incineration_of_plasti...
- scq 9y agoYou generally don't want to burn halogenated plastics like PVC though. As I understand it that will release highly toxic dioxins (which cause cancer and birth defects among other things) unless they are incinerated at high temperatures.
- pjc50 9y agoI don't know why this is downvoted, it's correct - incineration of plastics is needs to be done at high temperatures to avoid this problem.
- adrianN 9y agoMaybe it was PVC. That releases plenty of nasties when you burn it.