At 3:41 AM 2/28/5, Frederick Sparber wrote: >The explosion is attended by the allotropic transformation of then >metastable or alpha-form of >antimony into the stable beta-form or the rhombohedral variety, at the >same time the temperature rises to >about 250 degrees C, and 19,600 calories of heat are evolved per gram of >antimony. > >Clouds of antimony trichloride are given off at the same time. >Hence the term Explosive Antimony is given to a solid solution( 4 to 12 >percent ) >of the trihalide in alpha-antimony." > >The heat of combustion of H2 + 1/2 O2 is 54,000 calories per mole (18 >grams) , or 3.000 calories per gram > >The 19,600 calories per gram released by Explosive Antimony is over 6.5 >times this.
Note - 19,600 cal/g of Sb is only 161 cal/mol. > >On initial application of current there should be a flash deposit of >Hydrogen on the >Platinum Cathode. After that, a mix of Antimony Chlorine and Hydrogen. > >The exotherm energies of Antimony Chloride or Oxide is less than 2.5 >Kilojoule per >gram. > >Way below the 82 Kilojoule per gram of Explosive Antimony that Gore reported in >1855. The 19,600 cal/g released by explosive antimony is only 161 cal/mol = 0.674 kJ/mol. Codeposited hydrogen may be in atomic form. Consider the reaction H + H -> H2 + (436 kJ/mol = 104,000 cal/mol). That's 218 kJ/mol of H. Considerable energy has to be subtracted from this for the ionic bond of adsorbed H2 though. Given H2 + 1/2 O2 is 54,000 calories per mole (18 grams), *if* the freed H2 is converted to water, that's 54,000 calories per mole of H2 freed. H2 is only 2 grams per mole, thus an additional 27,000 cal/mol of H, or 113 kJ/mol of H is obtained for that H which finds oxygen. Some oxygen may be available in the form of animony oxide or included H2O2. The energy of even less than 1 percent adsorbed hydrogen may account for a significan part of the 0.674 kJ/mol given off by explosive Sb. The values 113 kj/mol and 218 kJ/mol dwarf the 0.674 kJ/mol obtained from explosive antimony. The 0.674 kJ/mol is small enough it may just be primarily from change of metastable to stable state. Hopefully I got the numbers about right. Regards, Horace Heffner
