Reactive Ore/metals

[lordly_dragon]

So halogens are not reactive... :-)

I've seen chemicals react in the way that Horus was talking (something with water).

That if you have a good bit with a lot of surface area and if it's pretty pure you'll get a really good reaction. I had the opportunity to throw a chunk into a small pond (was part of our class, the teacher was kinda wierd)... I had to wear a glove and throw it out a good distance. All I can say is BOOM. Not like fire and whatnot but there was a very violent reaction.

huh that is untrue... they tend to be reactive but not violent.. +1 is more reactive than +2 exept for noble gaz the side of the periodic table are really reactive so halogene +1 and alcalin -1 are really reactive but only alcalin are... well violent and b00mish

[leeor_net]

my mistake. I think what I meant to say is that they are not volatile.

[lordly_dragon]

yea this is true but even if they aren't volatile.. they are still harmfull to breath in large amount but this depend upon many factor like the molar concentration and what kind of element/component you swallow/breath

[BlackBox]

Noble gases are unreactive. They do not ionize, and thus can't react. (Well, this is the case for Helium / Neon / Argon. Some krypton and xenon compounds can form, such as xenon trifluoride, xenon(VIII) oxide, etc).

All alkali metals (metals with a 1+ charge, group IA of the periodic table) react very violently with water to produce a metal oxide and hydrogen gas. The heavier they get, the more energetic the reaction is. (ex. lithium and water fizz a little, sodium + water is a bit more energetic, and potassium + water burst into flame and make loud pops).

Also, the halogens (1- charge, group VIIB, second to last group of the periodic table) are actually quite reactive (sorry lordly_dragon). Fluorine is the most reactive of the halogens. It and chlorine are very poisonous in elemental, gaseous form. They are corrosive gases. Bromine is also very poisonous in elemental form, it being a liquid at room temp.

Dissolved fluorine compounds are added to drinking water as well as toothpaste (such as sodium fluoride, this is the active ingredient in toothpaste), as the tooth enamel is much stronger if it becomes impregnated with fluorine ions.

Chlorine gas is also very corrosive, it causes irritation if it gets into your eyes and is poisonous inhaled. It is yellow green. In swimming pools it is usually in compound or in very low elemental concentration.

Anyway, to get everyone back to the topic, there are more useful reactions than alkali metal + water out there.

One such reaction I can think of is the thermite reaction. Try this sometime if you're bored (wear safety protection, I'm not responsible if you try this and get hurt. Do so at your own risk). If you do the thermite reaction with large amounts of reactants, you should be doing this under a fume hood, standing back, behind a blast shield.

The thermite reaction is the reaction between iron(III) oxide (otherwise known as rust) and aluminum metal, to produce molten iron, shown in the reaction

Fe2O3 (s) + Al (s) -> Al2O3 (s) + Fe(l)
Heat of rxn = -847.6 kJ (Pretty energetic)

Usually the reaction is performed with large amounts of powdered reactants and with several catalysts (I won't go into details, if you're really interested, google it) but you can perform the reaction with two rusty ball bearings and aluminum foil (or some other source of rust and aluminum).

Wrap one of the rusty balls with aluminum foil, so no rust is showing.

You should have a uncovered rusty ball as well as a ball covered in aluminum foil.

Wearing gloves (and other precautions, such as safety goggles), hold a ball in each hand and hit the balls together as hard as you can. You should get a flash, and a loud pop. If nothing happens, try again. You need to use sufficient force.

Again other sources are possible, you just need to be able to produce the activation energy required to react the metals together.

The thermite reaction is used in making explosives (the molten iron can melt down an engine block) as well as underwater welding.

Have fun!

[Betaray]

ahh, im reliving adv. chem class all over again!!

so how would this do for the origional idea? is it feasible?

[BlackBox]

Well, actually I don't think the original idea would have that much of a weapons value, seeing as the only 'useful' thing you could get from the reaction is hydrogen gas.. you then need a spark to ignite the gas.. and to ignite it there must be oxygen.

In other words the reaction would probably not be as violent as it is in an oxygenated atmosphere.

There are probably plenty of other reactions that would be a lot more energetic and wouldn't require oxygen (or combustion for that matter).

[Betaray]

well the origional idea is that the cesiam reacts with the water in the blight and destroyes it

the effect would be on par with a microbe wall, but shorter duration, but it would be able to be fired from a turret like sticky or acid cloud

if we can made custom units we may give some thought about making this type of unit for the survivor maps

[BlackBox]

oh yeah, that could be a possible thing... starve the blight of water or something.

Sounds good

[Freeza-CII]

Well that could be a problem since the blight goes way down into the crust i belive you would have to beable to satutate the crust itself to kill off the blight.  But you have to remember you give to much of a bad thing and it will adapt and it wont work any more.

[Hooman]

You can't adapt to everything. I mean, no matter how many "witches" you burn, they've never adapted to fire.

And yeah, the blight does go pretty far down. But hey, it does need to eat to live, and if it consumes the whole planet, I suspect it'd exhaust it's food supply and die off pretty quick. Provided of course that there is nothing to renew it's food supply. But since the planet is essentially dead other than for the blight, I can't imagine it living for very long.


 

[Betaray]

so than im wondering why the colonists just didnt build a spacestation with cryo pods, and the people would just wait it out in stasis for the blight to starve to death

mabe the blight goes into hibornation, on earth we have found bacteria that have been dorment for millions of years, yet when exposed to the right conditions they started reperducing almost immidately

so waiting it out probly wouldnt be the best option

[Hooman]

Yeah, that was sorta an idea I'd had for an outpost sequel or addon. But I don't have the motivation to work on a project that big, and noone else I've mentioned it to has taken to the idea. Although, I'd have done away with the cryo part. I never expected the blight to live long enough for that to be an issue. Just live on the space station for a few months or years. Wait it out and come back. I was thinking it could be the story of the colony that didn't escape on a spaceship. They just lived on a partially built one, with minimal systems needed for life support and to return to the surface eventually. Anyone know what part of the spaceship didn't get finished? It'd be kickass if it was just the engines. I figure something along the lines of "Outpost: Return to New Terra" doesn't sound too bad. And the story shouldn't have too many possibilities for holes in it other than what OP2 might already have.

I'd hadn't known about that hibernating bacteria part though. That could be interesting to think about.

Anyways, it might make for a good addon, like Eddy's Renegades. Or if someone wanted to make an OP2 remake, it'd be a good excuse to use all the same graphics. Avoid having to do a lot of graphics work. *cough* *cough*
 

[BlackBox]

Perhaps the blight eats itself (I think some bacteria actually do). Or is chemosynthetic, i.e. it obtains its energy from iron or something.

Also, involving the blight.. why need space stations or whatever? Couldn't we all just use some sort of disinfectants to kill it? it is biological after all, you're hermetically sealed in the first place with the colony and tube system, so it technically shouldn't be able to get in if you relocate your base.

Of course you have the problems of vehicles and airlocks and people going outside, etc but again you could disinfect them.

[Betaray]

thats the thing, the blight eats the very thing the coloney is made of, so the buildings and tubes become breached very quickly

and a regular anti bacterial agent wouldnt work because it would be impossible to kill it all, and nothing short of killing it all would be effective

[Hooman]

Well, if it were that simple, the blight wouldn't be the problem that it is in OP2. But yeah, I'd sorta wondered about a modified sticky weapon that fired disinfectant instead. It could have been fun to toy with.