On 10/13/2016 06:08 PM, Henry Spencer wrote:
Only if it's a large ballpark. :-) Perchloric acid will set everything that actually wants to burn, on fire. Chlorine trifluoride will do the same even for things that *don't* want to burn, because they thought they'd already gone through that once, and all their oxygen atoms are screaming "no, no, I came by those hydrogens/carbons/metals honestly and they're mine dammit!".
If you want to set fire to everything that vaguely qualifies as a fuel, use perchloric acid. If you want to burn the *ash* from that fire, not to mention the crucible it was in, the firebrick the crucible is resting on, and just about anything you might use to try to put the fire out, it's time for chlorine trifluoride.
