Eli5: why would wood smoke have formaldehyde if the wood is just from a tree that I cut down into chunks?
In: Earth Science
Formaldehyde is a naturally occurring chemical in wood when you heat it.
That’s it. It’s like heating sugar to create caramel. That’s just what chemicals do.
Wood is made primarily of cellulose, which is a long chain of sugar molecules. When it gets hot enough, those molecules break up under the strain of their own vibration (chemists, don’t @ me). Some of those breaks knock off a chunk that just *is* formaldehyde— it’s a really simple molecule that’s made of the same elements as sugar, it’s not surprising to see it here.
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