What is it about a burned match?

[Jdurg]

Okay, what is it about a burned match that kills any and all odors possible?  I have a background in chemistry so I should know this, but I still can't figure it out.  I love the smell of a burned match.  For some reason, it reminds me of being a kid and the match being used to light the charcoal grill before an outdoor BBQ.  (Even though it wasn't a "true" barbeque and was simply a grilling session, but I digress.  I guess it's also the reason why I like the smell of charcoal and lighter fluid).

Just now I got rid of the "lunch" I ate yesterday and it didn't leave smelling all too pleasant.  I tried to get rid of the smell by opening the window in the bathroom, but it just wouldn't go away.  I tried an air-freshener, but that just made it smell like poop-scented flowers.  I also tried to use Febreeze odor remover, but that failed as well.  Finally, I lit a match and the odor was gone.  Now there's just the smell of burned match in the air.  No rotted poo.   

I now have a box of matches in my bathroom downstairs, and the bathroom upstairs.  Take THAT Martha Stewart!   

[AtomSmasher]

Back in college we had 6 guys living in the same apartment that had only one bathroom which was right next to the living room.  Luckily we found an air freshener that is more powerful then anything else I've ever smelled.  Its all natural and orange scented and is usually hidden up on a high shelf if the stores carry it at all.  I don't know why its not more popular since it works so amazingly well.

[shmokes]

You don't even have to tell me the name.  It's called Orange-Mate Mist.  You should switch to Lime-Mate.  It smells a lot better -- more like real fruit -- and it works at least as well.  The match works fine, but it's kind of a giveaway.  Try Lime-Mate Mist.  It is seriously bloody amazing stuff.

[saint]

My poo doesn't stink.

[Jdurg]

My poo doesn't stink.

Well then, why don't you write a book about it?  "Project Poo:  Building Your Own Stinkless Poop."  You could then include plans, and even ready made stinkless poo.  That shouldn't be too difficult for ya!     

[WaRpEd]

LMAO

[fixedpigs]

The match works fine, but it's kind of a giveaway.

lol...kind of like a messy bed is a dead giveaway of sleeping in a bedroom or dirty dishes are a dead giveaway of eating in a dining room...
 

[shmokes]

Well, sure.  But eating and sleeping aren't gross.  Shitting is. 

[MaximRecoil]

I think it has something to do with the open flame burning/consuming the odor-causing gasses, combined with the smell of the burning chemicals of the match head that does the trick.

[DaOld Man]

Actually, on an episode of "Myth Busters", they stamped the match trick as a myth...

BTW, I have the same affliction as Saint... mine smells like someone just opened a can of roses, so I cant say yea or nay..
 

[shmokes]

It's definitely not the flame.  Try using a lighter, for example, and you'll get no results whatsoever.  Regardless of Mythbusters, anybody who's used the match trick knows it works.  I'm pretty sure that it's just an overpowering oder that masks the poo smell.

[MaximRecoil]

It's definitely not the flame.  Try using a lighter, for example, and you'll get no results whatsoever.  Regardless of Mythbusters, anybody who's used the match trick knows it works.  I'm pretty sure that it's just an overpowering oder that masks the poo smell.

I don't know, I've never tried the match thing or a lighter or anything else, but those are the only two things going on when you light a match, i.e., the flame consumes gasses and the burning/burned chemicals from the match head give off their own odor. So if it does indeed work to mask and/or eliminate odor, then it is one of those two things responsible, or both.

[Jdurg]

Match heads are typically full of oxidizers and reducing agents which can do a good job of destroying chemicals.  Crap typically stinks due to organic sulfur compounds, and perhaps the phosphorus compounds in the match head, when volatalized, help neutralize the organic sulfur gases.  I know that phosphorus sesquisulfide is a major component of match heads.  I just don't know what it turns into when it has been 'struck'.  Phosphorus is, however, heavily involved in a burning match.

[RayB]

Well let's see, you did 3 things before trying the match. My bet is the smell dissipated by then.

Either that or the sulphuric smell somehow neutralizes something in the nasal smell receptors temporarily. I don't think it actually neutralizes the smell itself. Just your ability to smell it.

[shmokes]

You can certainly still smell the match, so it's not shutting down the olfactory entirely, that's for sure.

[ChadTower]

phosphorus sesquisulfide

That just sounds nice if you say it out loud.

[Jdurg]

Well let's see, you did 3 things before trying the match. My bet is the smell dissipated by then.

Either that or the sulphuric smell somehow neutralizes something in the nasal smell receptors temporarily. I don't think it actually neutralizes the smell itself. Just your ability to smell it.

That could be it too.  Mercaptans and sulfur gases all have the ability to shut down the nose's ability to detect those smells.  This is what makes Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) so insidious.  At first, you readily notice the horrific rotted egg odor of the gas, but soon thereafter your nose becomes numb to it.  Therefore, you think it's gone away but in reality it hasn't.  H2S is just as toxic and nasty for you as cyanide gas (HCN) is.

So sulfur molecules are able to shut down certain odor sensors in the nose.  I wonder if the particular sulfur and phosphorus gases in the burned match are able to shut down a great deal of them and only allow the more pleasant scents to move through?

Strangely enough, ALL of the elements in that column of the periodic table produce HORRIBLE smelling gases.  (Sulfur, Selenium, and Tellurium).  Sulfur gases are like rotted eggs, Selenium gases are like rotted radishes, and Tellurium gases are like rotted garlic.  You could always tell who the chemists were in college that had done experiments with selenium and tellurium and didn't properly contain it.  They were the ones who stunk like garlic and onions/radishes for a few days afterward.  (I know this first hand.  Damn pipette had to be so fragile.    )

That's also another reason why after eating garlic and/or onion containing materials the smell sticks around with you for a while.  Especially garlic.