Water bottle explosion with acid smell

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around an incident involving an explosion of a water bottle at a school, characterized by a sweet acidic smell and significant heat generation. Participants explore potential causes, chemical reactions, and safety concerns related to the event.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • One participant notes the explosion resulted in melted plastic and a sweet acidic smell, with a liquid pH of about 4.
  • Another participant suggests that students might have access to chemicals, implying that the explosion could be a result of a deliberate experiment.
  • A different participant clarifies that students do not have access to chemicals outside of lab situations, where all materials are accounted for.
  • One participant questions the nature of the sweet smell, proposing various possibilities for its source, including household cleaners and specific chemicals like dimethylbenzene.
  • Another participant describes the sweet smell as fruity and speculates that it could involve a household cleaner with a fragrant additive.
  • Concerns are raised about the safety of the incident, with one participant expressing hope that no one was hurt and suggesting the explosion might not have been accidental.
  • One participant proposes that aluminum foil combined with a dissolving agent in the bottle could be responsible for the explosion.
  • Another participant agrees with the aluminum foil theory and mentions that certain household cleaners containing sodium hydroxide could react violently with aluminum, potentially explaining the explosion.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express multiple competing views regarding the cause of the explosion, with no consensus reached on the specific chemicals or reactions involved.

Contextual Notes

Participants discuss various hypotheses without resolving the underlying assumptions about chemical access and safety protocols at the school.

psimms
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At the school where I teach, we recently had a recycling bin door blow off due to an explosion in a water bottle. Lots of heat was generated as evidenced by the melted, hard plastic and there was a sweet acidic smell to the liquid coating the inside of the bottle. The liquid had a pH of about 4. Any ideas?
 
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Do students have access to chemicals at this school? If so it was probably some student that did some research and found out there was an easy way to make that happen, no ideas to what it could be but i bet it could be anything unless there are specific things students can get from the school.
 
Students do not have access to chemicals at our school unless it is in a lab situation and all lab chemicals are accounted for at the end of each class...
 
psimms said:
At the school where I teach, we recently had a recycling bin door blow off due to an explosion in a water bottle. Lots of heat was generated as evidenced by the melted, hard plastic and there was a sweet acidic smell to the liquid coating the inside of the bottle. The liquid had a pH of about 4. Any ideas?
How would you define sweet? Like honey? Flowers? Fruit? Lemons? There are plenty of fragrances in household cleaners. Dimethylbenzene is said to smell sweet, it attacks certain plastics, and is present in certain cleaners, fresheners, and polishes.

Good luck with your search!
 
The sweet smell was fruity.
 
psimms said:
The sweet smell was fruity.
Perhaps it involved a household cleaner with a fragrant additive, such as orange or lemon Pine-Sol.
 
I hope no one was hurt. This sounds pretty weird almost as if it was not an accident.
 
Aluminum foil plus some dissolving agent (acid or base) in PET bottle will be my bet.
 
I agree that your best bet is a cleaner and Aluminum Foil. There are quite a number of household cleaners that contain Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) that will react violently with aluminum; especially if the cleaner is crystal form and made into a solution with water. Kids figured this out and tried putting it in a bottle... expanding gas has got to go somewhere. The only problem with this is that NaOH cleaners have a volatile lye smell; especially after reacting...
 

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