DIY fireproof material

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Warn­ing! Ob­serve safe­ty rules when work­ing with fire.

Equip­ment

• thread;
• met­al ring;
• an­ti­sep­tic;
• con­cen­trat­ed bak­ing soda so­lu­tion;
• hairdry­er;
• wood­en sticks;
• cal­ci­um chlo­ride and sodi­um sil­i­cate so­lu­tions.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Moist­en a thread with an­ti­sep­tic and hang a met­al ring on it. Set the thread on fire – it burns and breaks, and the ring falls! Dip an­oth­er thread in a con­cen­trat­ed bak­ing soda so­lu­tion. Dry it with a hairdry­er. Dip this thread in the an­ti­sep­tic and hang the met­al ring on it. When ig­nit­ed, the flame runs along the thread, but the thread does not break – the ring re­mains sus­pend­ed. The same can be done with wood­en sticks. If they are im­mersed in cal­ci­um chlo­ride and sodi­um sil­i­cate so­lu­tions and then dried, ig­nit­ing them will prove very dif­fi­cult in­deed. A doll­house made of these sticks doesn’t fear fire!

Process de­scrip­tion

The an­ti­sep­tic con­tains al­co­hol, which is easy to ig­nite and burns well. There­fore, a thread dipped in the an­ti­sep­tic eas­i­ly ig­nites and breaks. Bak­ing soda helps pre­vent this. When ex­posed to flame, it de­com­pos­es, re­leas­ing car­bon diox­ide and ab­sorb­ing heat. There­fore, only the al­co­hol ig­nites, and the thread re­mains in­tact! When we dip wood­en sticks in so­lu­tions of cal­ci­um chlo­ride and sodi­um sil­i­cate, cal­ci­um sil­i­cate forms on their sur­face – a sub­stance that con­ducts heat so poor­ly that it is used in the con­struc­tion of fire­places. There­fore, if you as­sem­ble a doll­house from such sticks, cov­er it with an­ti­sep­tic, and set it on fire, it will also re­main in­tact!

Ex­plore the laws of na­ture with the MEL Chem­istry sub­scrip­tion!