At 6:04 PM 3/1/5, Robin van Spaandonk wrote: >In reply to Frederick Sparber's message of Mon, 28 Feb 2005 >03:41:44 -0600: >Hi, >[snip] >>Way below the 82 Kilojoule per gram of Explosive Antimony that Gore >>reported in >>1855. >[snip] >This would actually make a lot more sense, if someone made a >mistake somewhere along the way, and it were 82 kJ/mol, rather >than per gram.
You may be on the right track about this. If you check the reference: <http://www.lateralscience.co.uk/Fluorine/Sb.html> (a URL given in the quote appended below) about halfway down the html page, in the paragraph "Allotropic modifications..." quoted partially below, you can see that 19.6 cal per gram is produced by the allotropic conversion, which at an atomic weight of 121.6 for Sb gives only 2383 cal/mol, or 9979 J/mol, or about 10 kJ/mol, a fairly nominal chemical energy density. NOTE THAT THE DECIMAL POINT IN THE 19.6 CAL IS HARD TO READ IN THE SCAN. 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 10 kJ/mol is small compared to either 218 kJ/mol of H or 113 kJ/mol of H. At 3:41 AM 2/28/5, Frederick Sparber wrote: [anip] >After going through about every possible exothermic chemical reaction that >are orders of magnitude below what Gore reported, I would be surprised at >any explanation other than CANR, Frank. > >http://www.lateralscience.co.uk/Fluorine/exant.html > >http://www.lateralscience.co.uk/Fluorine/Sb.html > > >Gore (1855) found that if a current of electricity is passed through a >solution of antimony trichloride >in hydrochloric acid---using an antimony anode, and a platinum >cathode---an amorphous powder >of specific gravity of 5.78 is deposited on the cathode. The cathode has >the appearance of a smooth >polished graphite rod. The deposit appears to be solid solution of >antimony trichloride in metastable alpha-antimony. >If this deposit be rubbed or scratched, an explosion occurs > >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. [snip] Regards, Horace Heffner
