Why does steel wool burn?

The large surface explains why steel wool can burn

• Actually, one can justifiably assume that metal itself does not burn. However, you have to revise this statement if you give the metal a large surface area by processing it into steel wool. In the solid state, if it requires the use of large amounts of thermal energy to make steel glow or even to melt it, in the form of wool, that is, thin, fine fibers, it is less difficult to make them glow or glow. This also provides the reason why in this case the energy a 9-volt battery is completely sufficient.
• Since metal in the form of steel wool comes into contact with a relatively large amount of oxygen - which only causes combustion and is therefore indispensable for every fire - significantly less energy is required here to start a combustion set. One speaks here of an exothermic reaction.
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• If one of the three necessary basic conditions for a fire decreases rapidly, this is the reason why it will go out.

Even steel burns due to an exothermic reaction

• This is an energy-releasing chemical process that requires a single, low start impulse in the form of energy to get going. The actual process then runs without any additional energy input. This works for the reason that a stable state, for example by supplying a Current pulse, is brought into an unstable state and thus a chemical reaction conjured up.
• If you take a closer look at the combustion process itself using, for example, a piece of wood, you will be able to see that it is not in the true sense of the word It is the wood that is made to burn, rather it is the gaseous fumes of this material that ignites by holding an open flame will. Using roughly the same principle, it is therefore possible to make steel wool burn.


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