What is the most flammable substance on earth?
Dan from Dorset (Aged 5-14)
Filed under: Alaster McDonach's Big Answers, Answered Big Questions, age 5-14
What is the most flammable substance on earth?
Posted on March 14, 2008 by joannarooke
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I did work with a very flammable gas called Silane which is the Silicon(SiH4) equivalent of Methane(CH4).
The gas is used as a source of Silicon for creating SiO2 layers on surfaces.
The Silicon in the moecule does not have a very good hold of the Hydrogen atoms and it readily gives up the Hydrogen. which then goes onto react with either the oxygen in the air or other materials in the environment.
There are a lot of safety measures needed.
I am sure there are other unstable materials with similar properties.
Pure Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) will ignite just by contacting other materials like alcohol. This is called spontaneous combustion and no source of ignition is needed outside the two coming in contact with each other. The Hydrogen Peroxide that you buy at the store is diluted from Pure (100%) to a 3% with water.
Other materials such as PURE Sodium (Na) coming in contact with water rips the hydrogen and oxygen elements apart so violently that it generates heat the ignites the hydrogen and oxygen.
Pure Oxygen (we breath “air” which only has 21% pure oxygen) will cause most fuels to burn easily and other fuels such as oils to ignite by just getting the fuel near the oxygen. These can cause explosion and I would consider these to be extremely flammable and can attest to the dangers these fuels are when near a pure oxygen environment.
Hope that helps and I also hope I have created more curiosity in your mind.