Re: [CH] Math problem
Brent Thompson (brent@hplbct.hpl.hp.com)
Mon, 21 Dec 1998 10:30:32 -0800
> Isn't nicotine sulphate burnt nicotine ??
"sulphate" of anything is basically the result of reacting that anything
with sulphuric acid. Perhaps nicotine sulphate is generated, for example,
in the chemical extraction and purification of nicotine from tobacco for
whatever reason it is they might extract and purify nicotine.
"burnt" would normally mean the product of, or as a result of, "burning",
i.e., fire. "burning" is a process involving liberation of great energy
(heat) as chemical bonds in the "burning" substance break and the released
components combine with oxygen in the air to create new and different
compounds (some of the most common products of combustion being carbon
dioxide, carbon monoxide, and water). A slightly different use of the term
"burnt" involves only application of heat, not fire per se (and when the
substance in question cannot itself "burn"), to change the chemical
composition of the "burnt" substance, e.g. maybe this term is used when
limestone is "burnt" to produce slaked lime or when wood is converted into
charcoal.
Either way, things that are burned are completely or partially changed,
chemically, due to the effects of the heat (and oxygen, in the most common
usage of the term "burning").
If the material being burned came from a living organism, some of the
compounds present in that material contain tiny amounts of sulphur, and it
is possible some of that sulphur might get recombined due to the heat of
burning into sulphuric acid, and then it is further possible some of that
sulphuric acid might neutralize some component in the burning material
(like maybe nicotine), and it is further possible some of that newly
created sulphate compound might not itself be consumed in the burning but
instead as smoke escape further effects of burning and end up intact in the
environment. Indeed, after common ordinary burning in air of most
materials derived from living organisms, you would expect to be able to
detect (if you had sufficiently sophisticated and sensitive equipment, of
course) trace amounts of all sorts of different sulphur compounds, nitrogen
compounds including nitrogen dioxide, and all sorts of organic compounds
not previously present in the material that was burned.
But, in general, burning has nothing to do with formation of sulphates, and
is not a mechanism to contrallably produce them.
--- Brent