THE FEASIBILITY OF USING ACETON AND

CIGARETTE FILTER AS GLUE

Submitted By:

Chinky Betina Reyes

Submitted To:

Mrs Annah Rey B. Colongon

The Feasibility of Cigarette Filter as Glue

 INTRODUCTION

A cigarette filter is a component of a cigarette, along with cigarette paper,

capsules and adhesives. The filter may be made from cellulose acetate fiber
or activated charcoal (either as a cavity filter or embedded into the cellulose
acetate). Macro porous phenol-formaldehyde resins and asbestos have also
been used in cigarette filters. The acetate and paper modify the particulate
smoke phase by particle retention (filtration), and finely divided carbon
modifies the gaseous phase (adsorption). Filters can reduce "tar" and
nicotine smoke yields up to 50%, with a greater removal rate for other
classes of compounds (e.g., phenols), but are ineffective in filtering toxins
such as carbon monoxide. Most factory-made cigarettes are equipped with a
filter; those who roll their own can buy them from a tobacconist.

Cellulose acetate is non-toxic, odorless, tasteless, and weakly flammable. It

is resistant to weak acids and is largely stable to mineral and fatty oils as
well as petroleum. It is biodegradable and the raw material is a renewable
natural polymer expected to find application for other uses in the future.
Smoked cigarette butts contain 57 mg nicotine (about 25% of the total
cigarette nicotine content), children ingesting >2 whole cigarettes, 6
cigarette butts or a total of 0.5 mg/kg of nicotine should be admitted to a
hospital. Cellulose acetate is hydrophilic and retains the water-soluble smoke
constituents, of which many are irritating (acids, alkali, aldehydes, and
phenols), while letting through the lipophilic aromatic compounds.

Smoked cigarette butts and cigarette tobacco are toxic to water organisms
such Marine top smelt (Atherinops affine) and freshwater Fathead minnow
(Pimephales promelas). Atmospheric moisture, gastric acid, light, and
enzymes hydrolyze cellulose acetate to acetic acid and cellulose. Cellulose
may be further hydrolyzed to cellobiose or glucose in an acidic medium, and
eventually form valuable humus. Humans cannot digest cellulose and
excrete the fibers in feces, because, unlike ruminant animals, termites, and
some bacteria and fungi, they lack cellulolytic enzymes such as cellulose.
Like wood, paper and cotton, cigarette filters in soil rot slowly over months to
years.
This experiment aims to develop a product that would serve as an alternative
to expensive commercial glue. I chose this topic because I would like to know
if acetone and cigarette butts or cigarette filters would be an effective
ingredient in making their own affordable glue. A lot of people nowadays are
engaging into different vices, one of which is smoking. There are a lot of
people who smokes even teenagers or young adults. And after smoking they
just toss aside the cigarette filters r butts everywhere not knowing that it can
be recycled and used.

Commercial glue is relatively expensive because of their brand names and

the materials used in making and manufacturing glues are tissues from
animals.The organic compound (CH3)2CO, or acetone, is a translucent
flammable liquid that exhibits a high degree of solvency that is why it can
dissolve cigarette filters. Many compounds are soluble when exposed to
acetone. Glue is very common used in homes, schools and offices. Many
people just toss aside a cigarette filter and it can be recycled and used. Due
to the expensiveness and unaffordable of some glue, many would prefer
making home-made glue. Glues from cigarette filter are affordable and easy
to make.
 The Feasibility of using Cigarette Filter as Glue

The main problem in this study is to determine which concentration of

using acetone and cigarette filter as glue.

Sub-problem:

Is there a significant difference between glue made by cigarette filter and

commercial glue in terms of:

a. Color
b. Odor
c. Appearance
d. State/form
e. Stickiness

Hypothesis:

There is no significant difference between glue made by cigarette filter and

commercial glue in terms of:

a. Color
b. Odor
c. Appearance
d. State/form
e. Stickiness

Objective of the study:

1. To make glue using acetone and cigarette filter.

2. To determine the best concentration of using acetone and cigarette
filter.
 The Feasibility of Cigarette Filter as Glue

Significance of the study:

Through this study,

Glue is very common used in homes, offices and schools. Since I am aiming
to minimize our expenses, we can use cigarette filter for making glue.

This study hopes to contribute to the following persons:

Students the students are the 1st to benefit from the study because glue is
very common used in schools and it can be recycled.

Community community is the 2nd beneficiary of this study because it can be

the eye-opener for them to stop smoking because it can be damage for our
environment and it can be recycled to be a glue.

Market - Due to the expensiveness and unaffordable of some glue, many

people would prefer making home-made glue. It can be selling in the
cheapest price and it is affordable and easy to make

Independent Variable: cigarette filter

Dependent Variable: glue

Constant Variable:

Scope and Limitation:

This study only limited by their stickiness. There are many kinds of glues;
they are stick glues, paper glues, glitter glues and etc. this glue differs
accordingly to its quality. This glue that I will produce cant be used as stick
glue because the glue that I will produce is fluid. This study is limited only for
paper, cloth, and wood.

The Feasibility of Cigarette Filter as Glue

Definition of terms:

Cigarette filter- is a foam-like found at the end of the cigarette.

Acetone - is a liquid solvent for certain oils, etc.

- a co9lorless, extremely flammable liquid, used as a solvent.

Nicotine - a poisonous liquid in tobacco

- a poisonous alkaloid, derived from the tobacco plant used in
medicine and as an insecticide

Cellulose an amorphous polymer, the main constituent of all plant tissues

and fibres, used in the manufacture of paper, textiles and explosives.

Glue - an adhesive substance used for sticking objects or materials together.

 The Feasibility of Cigarette Filter as Glue

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Article from an online journal

VANEZZA, 2007. The Feasibility of Using Acetone and Cigarette Filter as Glue.

http://www.ciline.net/?action=cigarette&news=39

http://quitsmoking-about.com/ad/chemicalsinsmoke/g/tar.htm

http://cigarette-cip.org/winston-cigarette-science.html
 The Feasibility of Cigarette Filter as Glue

RRL

It is estimated that about 40 lb. (18.2 kg) per year of glue are used for every
person in America, and it is easy to see how and why when one looks at the
extent of uses. Furniture, plumbing, shoes, books, buildings, and automobiles
all use glue in some part of their construction.
(http://www.enotes.com/how-products-encyclopedia/glue).

Glues are part of a larger family called adhesives. Glues are different form
adhesives in that glues come from natural materials and adhesives are
chemical-based. An adhesive is a substance that causes something to
adhere, or stick to something else.

Most school glue is chemical based. They are made or formulated from
chemicals which are synthesized (created by Man). These chemicals were
originally obtained or manufactured from petroleum, natural gas and other
raw materials found in nature. The exact formula and specific ingredients
used in making different brands of glue are considered proprietary
information and the companies wont share that information with the public.

The use of glue as an adhesive dates from earliest recorded times. Whoever
discovered that a strong adhesive could be produced by cooking pieces of
animal hide, or perhaps bone, in water has never been figured out, but
archaeological discoveries indicate that the Egyptians used glue more than
4,000 years ago. The practical manufacture of glue can be traced back
directly to 1690 in the Netherlands. Shortly thereafter, or about 1700, the
English began making glue and established its manufacture as a permanent
industry. Elijah Upjohn is considered by some authorities to have been the
first to manufacture glue in the United States, in 1808.
(http://cool.conservationus.org/don/dt/dt1560.html)

Glues have been around for thousands of years. Beeswax and tar were
among the earliest. Clay pots that archaeologists have found in burial sites
from as far back as 4000 BC have been repaired with glue made from tree
sap. We know that the ancient Greeks developed adhesives for use in
carpentry, and created recipes for glue that included the following items as
ingredients: egg whites, blood, bones, milk, cheese, vegetables and grains.
Tar and beeswax were used by the Romans for glue. (About.com: Inventors)

Ancient tribes figured out that they could get collagen, which is the protein in
animal connective tissue, from the bones, hides, skin and muscles from
animals. The collagen was sticky and was good for holding things together.
Other things that were used as the basis for glue were milk solids and dried
serum from cows blood. The serum has albumin in it. The albumin clumps
together when it is heated up and then it wont dissolve in water anymore.

Early glue was made from the heads, bones and skin of fish, but it was
really thin and not very sticky. By experimenting, early man discovered
that the air bladders of various fish produced much more satisfactory glue
that was white and tasteless. It eventually was named isinglass or ichthocol.
(Bellies, 2009, p. 38) Plants have also been used to make glues. They
dissolve in water and are usually made from the starches that are in many
grains and vegetables. Carpenters glue was made from slaughterhouse
leftovers such as hides and bones.

Modern manufactured adhesives arrived on the scene around 1910, when

phenol formaldehyde adhesives were developed for making plywood. Next
came acrylic adhesives, cyanoacrylates (also known as "super glue"),
epoxies, and so on. (Petrie, 2006)

White glue and the similar yellow glue used in woodworking are made of
polyvinyl acetate or PVA. It is a plastic. While regular school glue is made up
of man-made chemicals, other glues are made from animal proteins. This is
how they are made. The important properties of glue include its jelly
strength or consistency (gel strength), viscosity, melting point, adhesive
strength, tensile strength or elasticity, optical rotation, swelling capacity,
rate of setting, foaming characteristics. Of these, gel strength and viscosity
are most often used for determining the grade of particular
glue.(www.cnie.org/nle/biodv-33.html)

The glue manufacturing process consists essentially of washing, crushing or

shredding the bones or hides, soaking in a lime solution to eliminate hair and
flesh, boiling to extract the gelatinous material, gelling, and, finally, drying.
The resulting hard, brittle sheets of glue are then broken into pieces or
flakes, or ground into powder. After that glycerine is added to improve its
elasticity. Since these glues are organic they can get mouldy so a
preservative has to be added to extend the glues shelf life. Sometimes
deodorant is also added to make it smell better.

Although there are many ingredients used to make glue, most formulas
contain something called polymers. A polymer is a large molecule that often
is described as being a long molecular strand, much like spaghetti. Some
polymers are naturally "sticky" depending on how they are made. Others
require certain ingredients called tackifiers to make them sticky. The hard
part for glue makers is to find the right balance of polymers and tackifiers to
make a glue that is both sticky and strong. Glue doesnt however stick to the
inside of the bottle. This is because as long as it stays in the bottle, air cant
get to it and the glue remains a fluid. Glue hardens when there is a loss of
water from the mixture. Exposing the glue to air makes the water evaporate
and the glue hardens.

A good glue has excellent properties of adhesion (the ability to stick to the
surfaces to which it's applied) and cohesion (the ability to stick to itself).
When you pull apart something that's been glued together and the glue
comes right off the pieces that are an adhesive failure. If the glue itself splits
apart, leaving glue on either side of the joint, then that's a cohesive failure.
Adhesion and cohesion are both important for a glue to work.

Things adhere at the molecular level. The force that holds them together is
called the Van der Waals forces. This force happens when molecules have a
positive and negative end. It is called being polar. To make adhesion
happen, two surfaces have to be really close together and the adhesive must
be a little wet for them to stick properly. The glue has to spread and flow to
make sure enough surface is in contact and it has to spread thin enough to
make a good cohesive bond.

Van der Waals forces explain how the lizards known as geckos can stick to so
many surfaces in a seemingly impossible manner. The tiny hairs on the
gecko's feet (called setae) are split at the microscopic level into "as many as
1,000 branches, whose spatula-shaped tips are only 200 nanometres wide."
As a result, even though the Van der Waals forces acting on an individual tip
is small, the adhesion of a billion or so tips adds up to enough force to let the
gecko stick to anything. (Ben-Ari, 2001)

Scientists think there is more to how glue sticks than the Van der Waals
forces. They think some of the strength is because of mechanical bonding.
Surfaces, even if they seem perfectly smooth are rough at the molecular
level and the glues get some of their strength by filling in the spaces of the
surfaces to be stuck together.

White glue and the similar yellow glue used in woodworking are made of
polyvinyl acetate. PVA is part of the vinyl family of plastics, but most things
we think of as vinyl, such as vinyl siding and upholstery, LP records,
raincoats, etc., are made of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, the same material
used to make white plumbing pipe.

The Feasibility of Cigarette Filter as Glue

METHODOLOGY

Preparation of the materials:

Get the cigarette filter, acetone, cup container, and clean bottle.

Cleaning the cigarette filters:

Remove the paper that attached in the cigarette filters.

Wash the cigarette filters in water.

Drying:

Dried the cigarette filters under the heat of the sun.

Preparation of the cigarette filters:

Cut the filters into tiny pieces
Put the tiny pieces of filters in a cup or container
Put acetone in the filters and let it dissolved
The substance was transferred into a clean bottle
Cover and kept in a cool place

Collecting, Analyzing & Interpreting data: Collecting, analyzing & interpreting

of data