Ralf
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Posts: 1
Registered: 21-2-2025
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Burning iron wire in pure oxygen
Hi,
everyone knows that steel wool can burn in air. But did you know that an iron wire can burn as well?
It works, if you use pure oxygen. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL8VSgzIcEc
I used a zinc-coated 0.7 mm thick iron wire for the experiment. It acts like a powerful sparkler. The sparks generated are so hot that they leave burn
marks in the glass vessel. A massive piece of shiny iron oxide (Fe3O4) can be found on the bottom after the reaction. It is magnetic.
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woelen
Super Administrator
Posts: 8080
Registered: 20-8-2005
Location: Netherlands
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Mood: interested
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Looks quite impressive.
Another similar experiment can be done in chlorine gas. Prepare a jar, full of chlorine (e.g. by adding a tablespoon full of swimming pool chlorine
granulate to a few tens of ml of hydrochloric acid). Then immerse the iron wire, while being red hot, in the chlorine gas. it will burn violently,
giving off a brown cloud of very finely divided iron(III) chloride.
Do this experiment with chlorine gas outside! The gas and the brown smoke are things you certainly do not want to breathe and the brown smoke also
stains everything, including wallpaper, ceilings, etc.
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Mateo_swe
National Hazard
Posts: 558
Registered: 24-8-2019
Location: Within EU
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When testing bank vault alarms they sometimes use a thermic lance.
Its a steel pipe (i think stainless steel) that you connect a pure oxygen feed to and then set the other end on fire.
They then push the rod right through the about 1 meter thick vault door with molten metal pouring out.
Looks really cool and very, very hot.
So steel/iron burns good if supplied with pure oxygen and you manage to set it on fire.
In an pure oxygen environment very many materials burns good and are easily ignited.
They switched from pure oxygen environment after fatal accident in the US space program.
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