The discovery of new elements
We turn our time back to 1669. At that time, some alchemists firmly believed that "gold is hidden inside the human body", but we can't put people directly in the stove to roast. What should we do?
An alchemist named Honig Porant had a strange idea. He stared at the "urine" with a similar color to gold. As a result, he boiled a full 50 barrels, and the smell filled the entire basement, and he didn't even see the shadow of gold.
However, in this process, a magical substance that looks very similar to white wax appeared. It will shine in dark environments and even spontaneously ignite, and this is the surprise belonging to Polante - a new chemical element "phosphorus".
white phosphorus characteristics
Because of its extremely active chemical properties, the white phosphorus we see is usually stored in water. Cut it down a small piece and put it on a metal container. You can see the white smoke coming out quickly. This is because white phosphorus will chemically react with the oxygen in the air to produce phosphorus pentoxide .
Turn off the light, and we can indeed see the faint light emitted by white phosphorus during the oxidation process, but no one dares to use it as the daily luminous paint , because once it exceeds 40 degrees Celsius, the white phosphorus will spontaneously ignite, emitting dazzling white light and thick smoke, and the combustion temperature at this time is as high as 800 degrees Celsius!
This just happens in the air. If you fill a glass round bottle with oxygen and then ignite the white phosphorus inside, it is no exaggeration to say that the light released can blind my eyes!
Now, let’s summarize the characteristics of white phosphorus just seen: violent combustion, rolling smoke and dazzling light. If these are used in the military, aren’t they burning bombs, smoke bombs and flares?
Dangerous white phosphorus
In fact, as early as the 19th century, some people used white phosphorus to set fire. Their operation method is very simple: first put white phosphorus into the carbon disulfide solution, and after stirring for a while, the two are mixed together. At this time, the obtained solution is dropped on the filter paper. At the beginning, there seems to be no change, but as time goes by, the carbon disulfide continues to evaporate. Once the white phosphorus on the filter paper comes into contact with oxygen, it begins to burn wildly.
Later, as expected, people really created " white phosphorus bomb " and applied it to war. For example, in the movie " Changjin Lake ", Lei Gong drove away the red smoke logo to attract the enemy's attention. This logo bullet contains a lot of white phosphorus, which will attach to the human body and continue to burn violently. The scene is very cruel.
We can experience it through simulation experiments: the experimenter put a piece of white phosphorus on the pork, and the moment it ignites, it starts to burn. After a period of time, if it is covered with a glass container, the flame will be extinguished, but just taken away, the combustion continues again. After the whole process lasts for a minute, the pork has been burned to this way. It is hard to imagine what kind of miserable situation the person bombed in the war will be.
1980, the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons listed white phosphorus bombs as a prohibited weapon, that is, at least for civilians and civilian areas, it is prohibited.
