• Question: which mix of elements create the biggest chemical reaction.

    Asked by revilo1807 to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 8 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Will Reynolds

      Will Reynolds answered on 8 Jun 2012:

      Hi Revilo1807! This is a hard question to answer because there are many kinds of ‘big’ reactions. For example the reaction between an acid and limestone (calcium carbonate) creates lots of gas (carbon dioxide) which has to be collected or controlled. Some reactions produce lots of energy and get very hot, these are called ‘exothermic’. One of the hottest is when a substance called ‘thermite’ (aluminium powder) is burnt in air and combines with oxygen which can reach 1000’s of degrees. The most reactive element is fluorine and the production of PTFE (Poly Tetra Fluoro Ethylene), the non-stick coating on frying pans, is very fast, hot AND produces lots of gas! But the winner has to be nuclear fusion, the combining of hydrogen atoms to make helium, which happens in the sun. It has been burning for 4 billion years and will keep going for another 5 billion and is 15 million oC at its core! I hope this answers your question!

    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 8 Jun 2012:

      Hiya! I like magnesium and sodium – they can both produce exothermic reactions, as Will explained, and really pretty colours when they burn hot!

    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 8 Jun 2012:

      I’ve no idea. From your question I’m thinking exploaive and all I remember from school was sodium burns orange and potassium purple and Magnesium very bright white.(Will am I right?) But I wonder what’s the biggest in terms of happening the most. Will mention the sun and I agree that’s probably the biggest, but perhaps cellular respriation (making energy from sugars) would be one of the biggest going on in our bodies?
      Great question

    • Photo: Amy Birch

      Amy Birch answered on 9 Jun 2012:

      As has been mentioned by Will & Karen, I would think it has to be nuclear fusion – when atomic nuclei are compressed together to create energy which is what happens in the sun.
      There are many projects that are being funded into the possibility of using this fusion reaction to create energy that we can use, including a huge, multi-country, multi-government funded ITER project to build a fusion reactor called a Tokamak that should be completed in 2019. This will test the idea of using fusion for sustainable energy. So keep an eye out in the future!

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