In the other 20th century , smoker ruining their lung could do so with the service of a groovy little widget called the catalytic lighter . It looked like a small dual metal tube . Put one tube in the other and voila , fire . No flint , no sparks . The secret to the catalytic lighter ? Platinum .
clear ardour is just chemistry , after all , and the catalytic lighter involves aspecific kind of chemical reaction . As the video from Applied Science explains , one thermionic tube of the lighter is a taper filled with methanol . The other tube has a slice of platinum black , or pulverize and compressed platinum , suspend on a telegram also made of , yes , platinum .
When platinum run into methyl alcohol , it catalyzes a chemical reaction where methanol lose an electron . This releases enough heating to permit other methanol speck to have a fit . There you have it , firing .
Applied Science ’s television includes a few other related to demos , include outmoded catalytic hand warmer . you may actually still buycatalytic hand warmers , in case you ’re peculiar to have a catalytic reaction in your pocket . [ viaDigg ]
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