Does anyone know the Chemical Reaction of a safety match?
I believe the matches contain sulfur, potassium chlorate, powdered glass and red phosphorus but I couldn't find an equation for the reaction. Does
anyone know it?UnintentionalChaos - 8-1-2007 at 21:35
Strike-on-box safety matches contain Sb2S3 and KClO3 in the tip. The box's striking surface contains red phosphorus and glass powder. According to
wikipedia, the friction of striking a match causes a small portion of the striking surface's red P to convert to white P which combusts spontaneously
in air, starting the reaction between the components of the match head. Like any other pyrotechnic reaction, it is generally difficult to predict the
exact reaction products, but I would assume that a reaction along these lines occurs.
additionally, in these safety matches are many other substances to regulate their stability (in the matchehead are present sulphur and derivates which
isn't will be stable without "stabilizing" compounds as small amounts of Fe2O3, zinc, etc without these things the "safety" matche will turns in a
really mini portable "bomb" which will ignites and even explodes on smallest friction), other compounds to regulate the velocity of burn, etc..i
cann't remember much of the infos at teh moment because my book with tons of infos disapeared and i MUST sleep now (here: 5:05 AM)
the web....
tomorrow i will postdarkurza - 9-1-2007 at 19:02
Is So2 the only gas? I'm planning to use this as a cheap method of getting SO2 for making dilute sulfuric acid using the Lead Chamber method mentioned
in the General Chem section of this forum.Aqua_Fortis_100% - 10-1-2007 at 08:52
so now i find my book with the infos.
there says which moreover the Sb2S3 (in modern safety matches), has the phosphorus sesquisulfide(done development to risks to red P ). some of the
phosphorus sesquisulfide based modern matches are of the Strike-anywhere matches types, and other part of the Safety matches (although i don't know
what the difference of % in the composition )..
-------
darkuza,i think which is very probably which the SO2 isn't the ONLY gas of decomposition ,but the MAINLY gas...
i don't think which using this method with matchheads for producing H2SO4 is cheap, and also has very time consuming and lot of impurities (the others
gases from decomposition of matches can to poison any catalyst (e.g. V2O5 method)(????))..
you can try also heat sulfur alone with air or O2 this is much better (much less cost , and much more purity of SO2) and pass into catalyst, or then
heat MUCH more pirite or other sulfide ..e.g. iron sulfate III
Quote:
from wikipedia:
iron(III) sulfate, Fe2(SO4)3, which when heated to 480 °C decomposed to iron(III) oxide and sulfur trioxide, which could be passed through water to
yield sulfuric acid in any concentration
i still think which old baterry (and filtrated after) acid can provide dilute H2SO4 totally FREE..
also, search in this forum to see threads of H2SO4.
[Editado em 10-1-2007 por Aqua_Fortis_100%]
[Editado em 10-1-2007 por Aqua_Fortis_100%]TheAlchemistPirate - 21-11-2015 at 18:52
Sorry for reviving an old thread and all...
My recent projects in chemistry have involved mainly turning household chemicals into other ones, or isolating an element out of them. I recently
wondered if I could isolate the rather exciting compounds out of matches, as those are one the few pyrotechnic compositions commonly sold to the
public. My research showed (as stated somewhat incorrectly above) that strike-anywhere match heads contain PHOSPHOROUS sequisulfide(P4S3)and antimony
trisulfide(Sb2S3),along with some unnamed stabilizers. Safety matche heads (as opposed to strike anywhere matches) contain potassium chlorate (KClO3)
and antimony trisulfide(Sb2S3). The trick in safety matches (to make them safe) is to isolate the phosphorous critical to the reaction from the other
reactants in the match head by putting in on a striker strip on the box, along with glass particles and a binder to make sure there is appropriate
friction. Strike anywhere matches get around this problem by putting the phosphorous in a compound (P4S3)and using even more binders.
Usually, to get phosphorous from matches(both strike anywheres and safety) one would just cut out the match strips containing the phosphorous and
scrape or dissolve it out. The excess matches are simply wasted. My goal is to efficiently dissolve the binders and other unwanted materials out of
the match head composition, then separate and purify the wanted chemicals (usually two).
Firstly, I want to attempt to isolate phosphorus sequisulfide out of strike anywhere match heads via a solvent and some way to eleminate the binders
(filtration?). I noticed this post from a thread which is now closed-
"P4S5 can be dissolved from strike-anywhere match-heads with many solvents:
"Suitable solvents or diluents for the phosphorus sesquisuflide are solvents that dissolve the phosphorus sesquisulfide and which preferably swell the
surface of a plastic without detrimentally affecting the surface of the plastic. Such solvents include the halogenated hydrocarbons and halocarbons
such as chloroform, methyl chloroform, phenyl chloroform, dichloroethylene, trichloroethylene, perchloroethylene, trichloroethane, dichloropropane,
ethyl dibromide, ethyl chlorobromide, propylene dibromide, monochlorobenzene, monochlorotoluene and the like; aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene,
toluene, xylene, ethyl benzene, naphthalene and the like; ketones such as acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, and the like; acetic acid; acetic
acid-trichloroethylene mixtures; carbon disulfide; and the like. "
United States Patent 3650708"
For some reason it was called P4S5 but Wikipedia said it was P4S3. Anyways I can get toluene and aceton fairly easily, along with strike anywhere
matches. This may dissolve the antimony (III) sulfide and binders though.Has anyone attempted anything like this? I UTFSE'd and didn't find any high
quality threads about chemically isolating phosphorous and other reagents from matches.
