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Incomplete Combustion with Candle Flames: A Guided-Inquiry Experiment in the First-Year Chemistry Lab

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Joseph MacNeil

Department of Chemistry, Chatham College, Pittsburgh, PA 15232

Lisa Volaric

Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599

J. Chem. Educ., 2003, 80 (3), p 302

DOI: 10.1021/ed080p302

Publication Date (Web): March 1, 2003

Abstract

The self-extinction of candle flames in sealed environments is used as the foundation of a guided-inquiry module suitable for first-year chemistry labs. Working in groups of three or four, students are introduced to gas chromatography by resolving and identifying the O₂ and N₂ peaks from ambient air samples. The separation takes less than two minutes, permitting each student to gain hands-on experience. When the students are comfortable with the instrument, they are provided with the materials needed to construct a sample chamber and measure the composition of the air remaining after a candle flame has burned out. Students are initially surprised by the quantity of O₂ remaining, which is typically found to be 14% to 16%. Through interaction with the laboratory instructor the students attempt to improve their experimental design and reproduce their best results to allow some estimate of the remaining error in their method. Finally, they are asked to explain their results and apply them in other contexts.

Keywords (Audience):

First-Year Undergraduate / General

Keywords (Domain):

Laboratory Instruction

Keywords (Pedagogy):

Inquiry-Based / Discovery Learning

Keywords (Subject):

Chromatography

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