Hand Warmer Project
Purpose:
With soccer moving to the winter, there was a greater need to help these players stay warm, during the cold season. In order to do this,our class was faced with a challenge to create a hand warmer. With spring approaching we also were allowed to create a hand cooler, yet we choose to create a hand warmer. The hand warmer was to create an effective, safe, environmentally friendly, and inexpensive hand warmer in San Marin's Student Store and Athletic Snack Shacks.
Process:
In order to create this hand warmer we had to complete many labs to understand the reaction that each different salt had on the water compared to one another. Once we identified the salt we wanted to use, we began to brainstorm different ways we could help to maintain the heat for a decant amount of time. Through the salt experiment we found that Lithium Chloride increased the most tempurature wise. We decided to use Sodium Polyacrylate to absorb the heat in our lab and as seen below is our brainstorming, and data along with our presentation.
With soccer moving to the winter, there was a greater need to help these players stay warm, during the cold season. In order to do this,our class was faced with a challenge to create a hand warmer. With spring approaching we also were allowed to create a hand cooler, yet we choose to create a hand warmer. The hand warmer was to create an effective, safe, environmentally friendly, and inexpensive hand warmer in San Marin's Student Store and Athletic Snack Shacks.
Process:
In order to create this hand warmer we had to complete many labs to understand the reaction that each different salt had on the water compared to one another. Once we identified the salt we wanted to use, we began to brainstorm different ways we could help to maintain the heat for a decant amount of time. Through the salt experiment we found that Lithium Chloride increased the most tempurature wise. We decided to use Sodium Polyacrylate to absorb the heat in our lab and as seen below is our brainstorming, and data along with our presentation.
Chemistry Behind the Hand Warmers
In our hand warmer we used Lithium Chloride as our salt, and Water. This reaction can be seen below:
2 LiCl(s) + 2 H2O(l) -> 2 Li+(aq) +2Cl- (aq)
This reaction is exothermic reaction because the reaction releases heat and energy.In this reaction Lithium chloride is reacting with the Water to create the Exothermic reaction, the Sodium Polyacrylate helps to absorb heat.
In the reaction ionic compounds dissolve in water. Since water is a polar molecule, the H20 molecules separates the ions into the liquid. The positive ends of the H20 molecules face the anions(Chloride), and the negative ends of the H20 molecules face the cations(Lithium).
2 LiCl(s) + 2 H2O(l) -> 2 Li+(aq) +2Cl- (aq)
This reaction is exothermic reaction because the reaction releases heat and energy.In this reaction Lithium chloride is reacting with the Water to create the Exothermic reaction, the Sodium Polyacrylate helps to absorb heat.
In the reaction ionic compounds dissolve in water. Since water is a polar molecule, the H20 molecules separates the ions into the liquid. The positive ends of the H20 molecules face the anions(Chloride), and the negative ends of the H20 molecules face the cations(Lithium).
Evidence:
Reflection:
In this lab, our group had many trials and errors, trying to get our product to the best final stage possible. For my group, finding the perfect ratio of beads to lithium chloride was important to our model. The lithium chloride heated up too much, and was actually burning hot to the touch. We underestimated the amount of heat our hand warmer could produce. We then decided to uses a covering for the hand warmer which helped us to reach the final product. I believe my group did a great job in creating our hand warmer. Our hand warmer was not the best and didn't hold the heat as along as we hoped for. In this project I believe two things I could of improved on was my presenting skills, and my patients. For me, I feel if my group had practiced more on the presentation we could of done a better job. I had a hard time in this project with patients toward some of my group members, and I feel this is an area I could improve on for the future, to insure the best product we could produce. Two things that I believe my group did great on would be trying to understand the chemistry, and brainstorming. The chemistry concepts were a struggle at first for my group, but with help from our teacher, we were able to fully understand the concepts and how they applied in our project. When coming up with the water bead idea, and the packaging was an important part to our product, which was found through our brainstorming capabilities. As a group we definitely had our down falls when it came to the bags leaking and popping, but once we were able to figure out how to fix this issue it led to our project peaks. This led to our hand warmer never popping, and never breaking, which was an important quality to have in our hand warmer. the leakage would have been a safety issue due to the Lithium Chloride in our hand warmer. All in all, I believe my group did the best we could in the end. I was over all proud of what we produced, and believe that this project had a great learning curve for the class.