Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: taregg on 23/10/2011 15:09:32
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which element comes high flammable after hydrogen..........?
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Probably Cs or P. Why do you ask?
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Are you talking about in order in the periodic table?
Or oxidation energy?
Lithium?
Sodium?
Even some metals such as aluminum can undergo violent oxidation given the right conditions.
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As I mentioned in another thread, flammability is a simple switch concept. Something can be flammable, or it can be non-flammable.
As I also mentioned, there are several possible alternatives for introducing a hierarchy. Here is the ordering of some elements relative to hydrogen on 3 of them:
(1) Auto-Ignition Temperature (data from http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/fuels-ignition-temperatures-d_171.html (http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/fuels-ignition-temperatures-d_171.html))
White phosphorus 49°C
Red phosphorus 260°C
Sulfur 243°C
Carbon as charcoal 349°C
Carbon as coke/graphite 700°C
Hydrogen gas 500°C
Unfortunately none of the reactive metals are listed in that table.
(2) Heat (Enthalpy) of combustion per mole at 25°C (Data deduced from Housecroft & Constable "Chemistry" 3rd Edition, Appendix 11)
Hydrogen gas 286 kJ (molecule) or 143 kJ (atom)
Coke/graphite 394 kJ (atom)
(Red) Phosphorus 2984 kJ (molecule) or 746 kJ (atom)
Sulfur 2375 kJ (molecule) or 297 kJ (atom)
Lithium 299 kJ (atom)
Magnesium 602 kJ (atom)
Aluminium 838 kJ (atom)
Beryllium 609 (atom)
(3) Heat (Enthalpy) of combustion per gram at 25°C (Same source, recalculated for mass basis)
Hydrogen gas 142 kJ/g
Beryllium 67.5 kJ/g
Lithium 43 kJ/g
Coke/graphite 33 kJ/g
Aluminium 31 kJ/g
Magnesium 25 kJ/g
Red Phosphorus 24 kJ/g
Sulfur 9.5 kJ/g
There are many other possible ways of building a league table, but documentation on flash points, or minimum oxygen pressure for sustainable reaction, or flame temperature is much harder to find.
The only table that has hydrogen gas as a clear winner is the heat of reaction per gram, and on that table the element beryllium is a clear second. None of the elements missing from the list above can compete.
However, this particular table would usually be described as "fuel value" rather than "flammability", and it clearly does not mean anything like what we usually mean in everyday language when we talk about "flammability", let alone correspond with scientific usage of the term.