Some people might think that a candle flame is just fire, but there are actually some chemical changes that occur when the wax burns. The first change occurs when the chemicals in the liquid wax vaporize and become gaseous. As this happens, they create heat energy which warms up the air around it. This hot air then moves from one part of a room to another and heats up other objects near it as well.
The second change happens when the wax melts and becomes a liquid. This is because as the candle flame heats up, it causes some of the chemicals in the wax to vaporize which creates heat energy that mixes with oxygen molecules in the air to form water vapor. As this process occurs, there are also changes happening inside of each molecule because they break apart into smaller particles such as hydrogen ions (H+), hydroxide ions (OH-), and so on.
Finally, what’s left behind after all these chemical changes have taken place? The leftover substance might be something called creosote or black carbon deposits; although sometimes depending on what type of candle was burned you may end up with nothing but ashes from those things that were once part of the candle.
The chemical change that occurs when a wax candle burns are what creates light and heat as well as different types of gases that are released into the air, like carbon dioxide (CO), water vapor (H20), and oxygen gas (O). These changes also happen because there’s more than one type of molecule in a substance such as fat molecules dissolved in oil or vegetable oils in margarine. When these substances are heated to their boiling point they experience a phase change; for example, from solid to liquid then finally becoming steam altogether.
The heat from the flame melts some of the wax molecules, turning them into a liquid substance. This vaporizes and is then heated by the surrounding air until it reaches its boiling point, at which point water vapor (H20) becomes steam, oxygen gas (O), and nitrogen gas (N).
Think about what happens when you put an open can of soda in front of a fire; we see that there’s no visible change to the container itself but if you look closely enough with your eyes or through binoculars, depending on how close they are to the candle flame you’ll notice bubbles rising up out of solution inside. Mostly these will be carbon dioxide because this type of molecule doesn’t evaporate very well while other substances like water or ethylene glycol do.
When the oxygen molecules break away from the water vapor, they combine with other substances in order to create a new substance known as ozone (O). This is what we think of when someone talks about smog because it’s not only bad for people but also plants; these two things are what produces most of the food that humans consume and breathe so you can imagine how important this is.
Nitrogen gas will come out of the solution too although it won’t be visible like before because there was no nitrogen liquid attached to any candle wax. Instead, this molecule has been added into the air mixture just outside of your reach where it’s mixed in with all types of different gasses and becomes one big breathable mixture.
The chemical change that occurs when a wax candle burns are called oxidation and it’s what happens to smell the smoke from a fire, for example. The carbon atoms in the candle break down into smaller molecules that can combine with oxygen gas. This creates heat energy as well as new substances.
When you light up your favorite type of scented candle, the initial reaction will create something known as covalent bonds because this molecule contains both hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O). These two are very reactive so they’ll cling onto each other tightly making it harder for anything else to attach themselves there too. When these hydrocarbons react with oxygen, then we have more covalent binding opportunities since now those things together will react with more oxygen.
But this new substance, which is created when the hydrocarbons react with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and water vapor, will be able to make more covalent bonds.
What happens during the combustion of a candle starts as soon as you light up your wick or matchstick because the heat from it essentially melts down some wax molecules right on top of one another so that they can combine together under certain conditions. This creates what we know as polymers which are long chains made out of many smaller chemicals linked together. The polymerization process helps break down these large ingredients into smaller ones–the end result being energy release in the form of heat and light emitted by the flame itself.
