What chemically happens in a pressure cooker bomb.

Question

Include formulas and detailed explanation

Answer 1

Hi Sophia M.,

The term "pressure cooker bomb" is not meaningful. Possibly you mean a bomb calorimeter(?) in which a material (may be a pure substance or a mixture) is combusted in the presence of ~ 10 atm. of O₂ gas, to generate oxidation gases (CO₂ , H₂O , NO₂ , SO₂ , and so forth), and a great deal of heat. you can work out the chemical equation for combustion of a specific material?

The heat equilbrates into the reaction products, the walls of the bomb calorimeter, and the surrounding thermal sink (usually, a tank of water). The amount of heat generated may help confirm a potential chemical identification of a substance, though it is only weak supporting evidence. More information would be obtained if the product gases were absorbed into a carefully chosen train of specific cartridges; the gravimetric (mass) gains of each cartridge indicate the amount of a specific product gas that has been absorbed. But even more information would be obtained by mass spectrometry of the material, which would indicate elemental composition and structure of the material.

-- Cheers, --Mr. d.