Hi, I'm new, just joined today. I was wondering have anyone here heard of a metal that sets a flame when water iis added?? I'm not sure if I'm correct. I just remember hearing it somewhere. If anyone knows if its true and what metal it is I would be much abliged.
Hello Dirt_/Soldier, I am wondering if you are referring to magnesium chloride. I don't believe that it is necessarily a metal, however, in this form I believe that it is a bi-product of some other sort of other industrial process. An old employer of mine used to have a substantial stockpile of this stuff, as he had planned to put it through an additional refining process to extract more of the magnesium from it. His plans were changed for him and he was forced to dispose of it as a hazardous waste(almost broke the company). I do know however that it will ignite and burn when exposed to moisture, some of the drums that he had that contained this material were exposed to moisture and resulted in blowing the lids off of them and burning. My $.02 Regards, aevald
Metalic sodium, potassium and other alkalai metals will react with water producing a solution of the metal hydroxide, free hydrogen and a good deal of heat. The hydrogen often then ignites. These metals being quite flamable themselves I assume the burning hydrogen then could potentially ignite the metal itself.
Bill
When I was a teenager one of the guys had a bottle of kerosene with metalic sodium in it. He threw a chunk of sodium in the pond and as Bill mentioned it made hydrogen gas which did burn. It was somthing to see.
Perhaps you might have heard about what happens if you try to put out a magnesium fire with water.
The magnesium burns so hot that when exposed to water, it separates the hydrogen and oxygen atoms, causing the water to burn off at an explosive rate.
Tim
A couple of years ago in Cleveland OH, a magnesium recycling plant caught fire. This place had literally tons of magnesium inside. Apparently, the management played fast and loose with the safety protocols, with the end result being a tremendous 37 hour fire which layed waste to the building and all contents. In a stroke of bad luck for the owners of the building, it was RAINING while the fire was burning. The several fire departments that responded pretty much sat a safe distance away and went "Oooohhh...Ahhhhhh." and kept it from spreading to adjacent buildings.
I haven't seen this happen with elements in "shiny metal form" --
but I'll echo the other comments on the forum that some compounds of magnesium will create spectacular fires, and are highly reactive with water, some acids and very low jolts of electricity. They typically have to be stored very carefully for just this reason.
Forum
