Adventure Ausrama Blog

The chemistry of lighting a match. If you want to see in a dark room, light a match. It's simple isn't it? Not so fast, it is actually quite complex. A slow motion video at 40,000 frames per second shows the process. The completed video spreads out 0.10 of a second into one and a half minutes. Ignition takes place inside the "live" head of the match. It is just a little explosion followed by "slow" burn. The chemical blob does not burst into pieces. I holds together with small bits rolling to the outside surface.  It looks a planet exploding. The main ingredient of a match head is antimony trisulfide : potassium chlorate makes this burn. Ammonium phosphate is also there to reduce particles from escaping, but some smoke is inevitable. Paraffin wax coats the match down to the halfway mark to ensure the flame continues on down the matchstick. Powdered glass and red phosphate in the strike strip on the side of the matchbox ignites by f

CHEMISTRY What are the French good for? Supplying top class engineers to Britain because they still use the rote system in education maybe? The French do have some good ideas though. They have come up with a way to strengthen bones. For years foam has been injected into walls of houses to improve insulation. The concept has been adapted to health. Calcium phosphate cement has been used for some time to repair bones. It is a bone substitute during surgery. The compound has now been made into a foam. It can be injected into bone to repair defects. Tests have shown it regenerates bone growth in osteoporosis treatment. French chemists at the University of Nantes have used hydrogen to push air bubbles into the calcium phosphate compound. These cavities enable new bone growth to strengthen weakened bones.  Medical breakthroughs are ongoing.  It is a pity health provision in all countries of the world is failing while new treatment techniques continue. ◆ Chemistry by T