how to extinguish a fire of sodium, lithium or potassium?
what is the best way to extinguish a fire of one the alkali metals such as sodium, lithium or potassium?
water would not be a good idea as all of these burn it, but which substance would be?
nitrogen?
carbon dioxide?
though i m not a student of
though i m not a student of chemistry....... but i guess CO2 is gonna help..
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A very interesting content. I
A very interesting content. I myself sometimes wander how a fire extinguisher works.
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Sand is the best option and
Sand is the best option and is the only thing you can find anywhere. Other special substances exist but I don't think you have them around the house. My flood damage repair guy told me about this and he also said that sand is good to put out electrical fires when there's a shortage and you don't wanna get burned.
Obviously the best idea is
Obviously the best idea is to avoid having a fire in the first place!
Lithium, sodium, and even potassium won't just catch fire spontaneously (although Na/K alloy will do so!). If they do take fire, sand is indeed the best option. Be certain not to use any halogenated hydrocarbon extinguishers (Halon and the like).
If it were a small amount, I would probably dump sand on it. For larger amounts (like 30g or so), I would probably clear the area and let it burn itself out rather than risk inhaling the caustic vapours or blinding myself with the fumes. Of course I'm assuming that you're doing this in a hood or outside in a draft in a lonely place where this is safer to do!
I would definitely say SAND
I would definitely say SAND is the best answer. Aside from the fact that you can find it everywhere, it has been proven to be very effective to extinguish alkali metals. In fact, fire trucks use sand to extinguish oil-based fires.
Hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Ed Hartwicke
Sand would be the best
Sand would be the best option for this. This would also be the easiest thing to find. It's better to use this than the other and would definitely would not cause burn.
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Sand.
You could use a CO2[sub]2[/sub] extinguisher; N[sub]2[/sub] extinguishers are not common. The reactions of alkali metals with H[sub]2[/sub]O are increasingly violent, but the greatest danger is not from flames (Li is a rather slow reaction and they do not become truly violent until Rb and Cs) but rather the products of the reactions, LiOH, NaOH, and KOH which are all caustic.
that is because hydroxides of alkali metals burn your skin for example, right?
would it make sense to neutralize hydroxides with acids?
That wouldn't be favourable as when acids (nomatter what, even citric acid in oranges) touch strong alkalis (KOH, for example), strong heat is released and may cause even greater fire danger than the metal itself.