Oxygen, how to detect higher than normal concentrations?

[GorillaZilla]

Hello chaps

 

Say I have a pipe that outputs gas, that I can capture in a sandwich bag.... Is there any way to determine if there is a high concentration of oxygen in the captured atmosphere?

 

Even better, is there any way I can tell if it is really high concentration of oxygen? 80% or more?

 

All using easily attainable equipment or chemicals, is there anything like a test strip I could put inside the bag to show the concentration of oxygen?

 

[John Cuthber]

A glowing splint or a zinc/air battery?

[GorillaZilla]

I'll try the splint, if i put the end of the pipe at the bottom of a tall beaker, I take it the beaker will fill up with oxygen due to it's higher density aye? the output on the pipe is not much, maybe half a litre per minute, will the oxygen diffuse into the air faster than I can fill the beaker at that rate?

 

Also how do I go about testing oxygen with a zinc air battery? Does the voltage change depending on the oxygen concentration?

Edited May 5, 2016 by GorillaZilla

[John Cuthber]

Air and oxygen have very similar densities.

Collecting it over water will work much better

http://scienceaid.co.uk/chemistry/applied/gases.html

 

 

I never got the zinc/air cell to work- but I didn't try very hard

http://www.edu.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp/chem/v13n1/10_2d4_1.pdf

 

It's also important to consider what other gas might be present- for example if there is a flammable gas too, the effect of the splint might be more vigorous than you had in mind.

Where is this gas from?

[GorillaZilla]

The source of the gas is from a pressure swing absorption oxygen concentrator pulling from the surrounding atmosphere... So shouldn't have anything combustible comming from it.

 

How would you go about confirming that the gas held over water is a high concentration of oxygen? Using a splint would be difficult for obvious reasons.