Investigation of Mixing and Cooling Properties of Beeswax and Table Sugar Through Microstructural An

1
Investigation of Mixing and Cooling Properties of
Beeswax and Table Sugar Through Microstructural
Analysis

• Nozomi Ando
• Dan Steingart
• Nick Svencer
• Tufts University
• Medford, MA 02155

2
Overview

• To study wax-sugar phase boundaries
• To determine whether a mixture or reaction
  occurs.
• To investigate the resulting physical properties
• To analyze the products viability for sale as a
  candy.

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Introduction
Areas of Interest are

• Cooling Properties of a Beeswax/Sugar Mixture
  Based on Composition and Cooling Rate
• Homogeneity of the Mixture
• Physical Properties of the Mixture
• Optical Properties of the Mixture

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Experimental Design

• Spherical Mold chosen
• Creates even cooling
• Aids in cast removal
• Thermocouples placed to create cooling comparison
• Made Wax the Major Component
• To create diversity among the experiments
• Water-Sugar-Wax Ratio 25/20/50

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Experimental Procedure

• Made Mold
• Determined Wax-Sugar-Water ratio
• Heated Sugar-Water mixture to 180 Celcius
• Added 50 grams wax
• Using LabVIEW program, measured and graphed
  temperature until change leveled off.
• Waited for mixture to solidify, then studied
  microstructure under microscope.

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Results - Cooling Curve

• Since the mixture was supersaturated, the
  precipitate wax fell out of solution quickly.
• Two distinct cooling curves resulted, one for
  each section of the mixture.

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Results - Mixture Properties

• Separation occurred rapidly, a low solubility
  assumed.
• Compared to graduate student sample less of a
  saturation gradient.

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Results - Microstructure Properties

• Wax Region
• Dark, amorphous region
• No visible pattern
• Sugar Region
• Bright, globular region
• No apparent structure, bright spots may allude to
  diffraction, a crystal property

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Discussion - Cooling Theory

• Wax observed to solidify quickly assumed to have
  a lower specific heat.
• If wax has a lower specific heat, then the wax
  which remained in suspension must have increased
  the cooling rate of the sugar.

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Discussion - Mechanical Properties

• Wax
• soft
• malleable
• Sugar - Wax Mixture
• hard
• brittle

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Discussion - Mixture vs. Reaction

• Separation indicative of a mixture.
• Microstructure shows a disorderly combination of
  wax and sugar properties.
• If mixture is so obvious, why consider a reaction?

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Discussion - Optical Properties

• Although the mixture is mostly wax, the sugars
  optical properties are predominant.
• Translucent
• Diffracts light when cracked

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Conclusion

• Wax cools faster than sugar, thus sugar has a
  high heat capacity
• The creation is a mixture, not a reaction
• While sugar was only a fraction of the mixture,
  its physical properties were predominant in the
  mixture

14
Future Modifications

• Control and compare different wax to sugar
  composition
• Better mixing tools
• Use an electron scanning microscope for more
  precise crystal analysis
• Uniform molds between all experiments