Advantages And Disadvantages Of Hand Warmers

During the cooler seasons, Virginia gets very cold and thus, the people living in Virginia also get cold. The colder temperatures, not only in Virginia, are the reason for the existence of hand warmers. The experiment conducted was perused for the sole reason of saving money on these said hand warmers. If having more sodium acetate in the hand warmer lasts longer with the highest temperatures than having less sodium acetate, then one would simply buys the bigger hand warmer. After making sodium acetate, the liquid was placed into pouches, which would go on to be tested for their temperatures over a certain period of time. The pouches would be activated and placed into cups of water and the temperatures of the water would be recorded at intervals.

The reusable hand warmer is a pouch filled with a sodium acetate solution that uses exothermic crystallization to warm up. Exothermic crystallization means that, when activated, the hand warmer will radiate heat by the process of crystallization. To activate the process, the pouch has an inverted metal disk floating around within the solution and when pressed or “clicked”, the process initiates (Brain,

The formula for sodium acetate is NaC2H3O2, it is quite soluble in water, soluble in ether and slightly soluble in ethyl alcohol. While the chemical compound melts at 622.8℉, it does not have a boiling point for it will decompose. A hydrate is a chemical compound that forms when one or more water molecules are added to the molecules of another substance. Since sodium acetate is a trihydrate (NaC2H3O2·3H2O), it has three molecules of water for every molecule of sodium acetate and because of this, anhydrous sodium acetate quickly transitions into a trihydrate. This is due to sodium acetate being quite hygroscopic, meaning it readily absorbs moisture from the air. Sodium acetate is made by reacting either sodium hydroxide - NaOH / Caustic Soda - or sodium carbonate - Na2CO3 / Soda Ash (which can be replaced with sodium bicarbonate/ NaHCO3/ Baking Soda) - with acetic acid - HC2H3O2 / Vinegar. When it does form, sodium acetate establishes as a trihydrate but can be turned anhydrous by boiling and evaporating the reacting solution (Schlager,