[crack3rjack]

If you introduce a small to fair amount of CO2 to a fire, mixed with O2, how much will it prevent the fire from burning? Also, is it the O2 that a fire needs to burn? or is it just air in general?

[Corvettaholic]

I don't know a terrible amount of the actual chemistry of combustion, but you DO need the O2. C02 doesn't help a fire, its a byproduct of fire.

[gregpawin]

Yes here's the composition of air:

78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, 0.9 percent argon, 0.03 percent carbon dioxide

So, most of the air is nitrogen, which does not participate in combustion.  So generally, the equation for combustion is:

Organic material (C,H,O atoms) or fossil fuels (C,H atoms) + O₂ => H₂O + CO₂

And yes, combustion produces water, which is how mufflers can develop rust and why they're seen to drip out water on cold days.

[jdurg]

Not all combustions involves oxygen.  Lithium, for example, will burn in an atmosphere of pure nitrogen.  Magnesium will burn in the presence of carbon dioxide.  Just about everything will burn in the presence of fluorine.  So whether or not something burns really depends on the chemical composition of the substance, and whether or not there is an oxidizer present.  (Because it's the oxygen atoms that allow things to burn.  It's the presence of an oxidizer which is able to take electrons, so to speak, away from a fuel.)

[Corvettaholic]

When I think oxidizer, I automatically think oxygen. But an oxidizer can be anything that takes away electrons, right? I also remember hearing that florine is REALLY dangerous stuff, so if you used that as an oxidizer, wouldn't that make a nice lethal byproduct?

[gregpawin]

Right, there are many reactions, that are spontaneous and involve burning, but combustion of hydrocarbons are their own catagory of reactions.  I wonder if combustion reactions also encompass those type of reactions too.

[Mitch]

I remember reading somewhere that combustion, strictly speaking, involves the consumption of O₂. Although people use the term combustion loosely

[AgG]

agreed. I've never read anything to the contrary.  combustion is not combustion without O2

[limpet chicken]

As for fluorine, it isn't really the byproduct in most cases you need worry about, F2 is a plain VICIOUS gas, and is a great problem to handle it, try to vent some from a monel/passivated nickel metal pressurised canister, through a standard hose, and that hose bursts right into flames, spewing lethal fluorine gas everywhere.

If you were to theoretically make sodium fluoride directly, I would be FAR more happy around the NaF, than around fluorine gas, I tried making elemental fluorine a couple of years ago on a nano scale, didn't succeed, as my chemistry knownledge was not quite up to the level it is now, but put it this way, it involved a gas mask with acid gas filter, and FULL body protection, with elbow length gloves, full facial protective hood and eye protection, and a somewhat nervour chemist working in a very well ventilated garage with the door WIDE open

Be careful with fluorine, it bites, and when it does, it bites like a bone-dissolving pit bull

[lemonoman]

F2 is a plain VICIOUS gas, and is a great problem to handle it, try to vent some from a monel/passivated nickel metal pressurised canister, through a standard hose, and that hose bursts right into flames, spewing lethal fluorine gas everywhere.

Are you speaking from experience?

[AgG]

obviously!

[limpet chicken]

I used the monel metal canister as an example of what it takes to store F2 safely, I have once prepared elemental F2 on a very small scale, which, as expected, set the rubber hose on fire at contact.

[constant thinker]

Whoaaa how do I make this stuff(Flourine)?

JUST Kidding. Sounds like a dangereous gas. Isn't it one of the most reactive elements known to man?

[Alberto_Kravina]

Whoaaa how do I make this stuff(Flourine)?

JUST Kidding. Sounds like a dangereous gas. Isn't it one of the most reactive elements known to man?

Fluorine is made by electrolysis of NaF(l)

Fluorine is the most reactive element

[lemonoman]

Getting back to combustion,

Fluorine is the most reactive of the non-metals, and will combine with most other elements. Only a few of the noble gases do not combine with this element. It corrodes platinum, a metal that resists most other chemicals. In a stream of fluorine gas many substances burn with a bright flame, including finely-divided metals, glass, ceramics, carbon, wood, rubber and even water.

from Visual Elements

GLASS?? Now THAT I've gotta see...a movie of it I mean  ...Pretty rough stuff.