On Saturday 21 November 2009, Jeshua Lacock wrote: >On Nov 21, 2009, at 3:03 AM, Erik Christiansen wrote: >> On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 05:10:18PM +0000, Leslie Newell wrote: >>> Carbon dioxide is 66% oxygen (CO2). As aluminum is very active it >>> will >>> strip oxygen out of the CO2. That is also the reason why you should >>> never use a CO2 fire extinguisher on magnesium fires. >> >> However, it is extensively used in fire extinguishers precisely >> because >> it does not give up its oxygen even at hundreds of degrees C. I'm not >> sure of how many thousand degrees magnesium burns at, but it is more >> than 1500, because thermite (magnesium and iron oxide) combustion >> melts >> the iron produced by the reduction of the iron oxide. > >Correction: "Thermite" is actually a name brand which is a mixture of >aluminum and iron oxide. > >Generically speaking, Thermite is referred to an "aluminothermic" >reaction. It is aluminum's high infinity for oxygen that strips the >oxygen away from the iron oxide.
s/infinity/affinity :) >I am sure you could also burn (exothermic reaction) magnesium with >iron oxide, however, that would result in such rapid combustion it >would cause an explosion. > >I have actually casted iron, steel, nickel, chromium, ferrotitanium, >and even titanium using aluminothermic reactions (you use the oxide >for the metal that you want - like titanium dioxide for titanium). It >is fascinating stuff! > >Note that titanium dioxide takes a great deal more energy to sustain >an exothermic reaction compared to iron oxide, so the use of a >catalyst is required. Interesting Jeshua, and the catalyst used was? > >Cheers, > >Jeshua Lacock >Founder/Programmer >3DTOPO Incorporated ><http://3DTOPO.com> >Phone: 208.462.4171 -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) The NRA is offering FREE Associate memberships to anyone who wants them. <https://www.nrahq.org/nrabonus/accept-membership.asp> "All these black people are screwing up my democracy." - Ian Smith ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008 30-Day trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment - and focus on what you do best, core application coding. Discover what's new with Crystal Reports now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bobj-july _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
