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How to Make a Breathalyzer

In 2008, there were 11,773 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities, according to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Association. These deaths could have been prevented if the drivers hadn't consumed alcohol. Most states set limits on how much a person can drink and still drive. To enforce this, police officers use breathalyzers. If you make your own breathalyzer, you can save your life and the lives of others.

Things You'll Need

3-ounce Alconox solution
3-ounce beaker
3-ounce glass test tube
Distilled water
Blow dryer
Cooking pot
Stove
1.5mg potassium dichromate
.20-ounce 50% concentration of sulfuric acid
1.5mg silver nitrate
1-foot plastic tube
Scissors

Instructions

- 1
  Pour 3 oz. of Alconox solution into a 3-oz. beaker. Leave the solution in the beaker for one minute. Pour out the solution. Alconox solution disinfects the beaker.
- 2
  Rinse the beaker out with distilled water three times. Dry the inside of the beaker with a blow dryer. Continue until you wash and dry one beaker and one test tube.
- 3
  Pour water into a cooking pot and heat it to a boil.
- 4
  Pour 1.5mg of potassium dichromate into the beaker. Add .20 oz. of sulfuric acid into the beaker. Mix the solution with a glass stirrer.
- 5
  Pour 1.7-oz. of the solution into a 3-oz. glass test tube. Add 1.5mg of silver nitrate into the test tube.
- 6
  Place the test tube over the boiling water to heat the test tube. The heat helps dissolve the silver nitrate.
- 7
  Cut a plastic tube to a length of 1 foot, using scissors. Place one end of the tube above the top of the test tube. Don't place the end of the tube into the test tube. The blown air might cause the solution to spill.
- 8
  Blow air into the opposite end of the test tube for 10 seconds. Use a slow and steady breath. Potassium dichromate is reddish-orange. When it reacts with alcohol, it turns into chromium sulfate, which is greenish-blue. If your solution turns greenish-blue after you breathe into the test tube, it means that you have consumed alcohol.

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