Napalm - by kazaa81 from various sources over the net A clear summary about what napalm is. Forget the crap explanations...have fun! Napalm is an incendiary weapon firstly developed during World Wars and then improved during Vietnam War by the U.S.A. There are many methods for making it, but in fact, it is a gelled hydrocarbon. As the feature that makes useful napalm is that it is a gel that when ignited burn hot and apply at things, it isn't very important what material use to gel. U.S.A used the most cheap things to gel it, because, how firstly sayed, it is important only to gel well a hydrocarbon. It is supposed that the word Napalm is intended like NAphteic and PALMitic alkali metal salts of fatty acids, naphteic and palmitic, indeed. However, the association of Napalm with Na (natrium) fatty acid salts isn't accepted from all, because sodium salts of fatty acids don't gel hydrocarbons well. These salts of fatty acids are frequently used in soaps. Aluminium salts of fatty acids, for example, gel hydrocarbons very well; aluminium octoate, a salt of octanoic acid, is a defined component of napalm-b. Other substances used in napalm formulations to gel hydrocarbons are polystyrenes, that were later discovered that gel hydrocarbons well and are cheap. An other incendiary substance used instead of napalm was white phosphorous but it isn't any gelled hydrocarbon, just a form of the element phosphorous. How writed in U.S. Patent 4,166,723, acetic anhydride in a 0,5-20 volume percent improve the burning features of napalm. For ignite napalm, that was dropped during Vietnam War in aluminium canisters, were used different devices, like detonators or pyrophoric materials mixed with napalm. One of this pyrophoric materials was TIBA (or TIBAL), which stands for TriIsoButylAluminium. Here is an extract from U.S. Patent 6,664,351 TRIISOBUTYLALUMINIUM (TIBAL) A commercial product (Schering, now Witco) was used in a 20% weight-volume solution in hexane. Polymerizations All the operations to prepare catalysts were carried out in an atmosphere of anydrous nitrogen. EXAMPLE 1 (a) Preparation of the Supported Catalyst 100ml of anydrous toluene and 5.2g of the support (Al) were introduced into a glass reactor of 350ml capacity, fitted with a thermometer, reflux condenser, rod stirrer and a thermocontrol system. 30ml of a 1M toluene solution of MAO (157mg of Al/g of support) was added within 40minutes to the mixture at a costant temperature of -5°C with continued stirring. The reaction was allowed to proceed for 1hour at a temperature of -5°C, then for 1hour to a temperature of 0°C, for 1hour at 30°C, and then for 4hours at a temperature of 80°C. After cooling to 25°C, the solid residue was filtered off and washed with 100ml of toluene and redispersed in 100ml of toluene. It was then cooled to 0°C, and 50ml of a toluene solution containing 224,2mg of the mixture of rac/meso-ethylene-bis(4,7-dimethyl-indenyl) zirconium dichloride (B1) (8,3mg of Zr/g support) were added in 55minutes. The temperature was taken to 30°C, and the mixture was stirred for a further 2hours. This gave a suspension of reddish colour which was allowed to settle, giving a precipitate and a colourless solution which was removed by syphoning. The precipitate was repeatedly washed with anydrous toluene and then dried in vacuum. 7.0g of a product of microspheroidal morphology were recovered, having the following composition in weight: 9,6% of Al, 0,7% of Cl, 0,44% of Zr. (b) Polymerization A steel autoclave of 2,5l capacity, fitted with a rod stirrer with magnetic drive, a manometer, a temperature indicator, a catalyst feed system, monometer feed lines and thermostat jacket was cleaned by washing with propane at 70°C. At ambient temperature, 5mmol of TIBAL in 5ml hexane, 1260ml of propane and the quantities of ethylene, 1-butene and hydrogen indicated in Table 1 were introduced, and the reactor was heated to 45°C. The catalyst suspension was prepared in a Schlenk-type test tube with a drain cock at the bottom. 5mmol of TIBAL in 5ml of hexane and then 92mg of the supported catalyst obtained under (a) were successively introduced at a temperature of 25°C. The reagents were left in contact for 5minutes, and the suspension was then introduced into the autoclave by excess ethylene pressure. The temperature was taken to 50°C and maintained constant for the duration of the polymerization. The total pressure was kept constant by feeding an ethylene/1-butene mixture in a molar ratio equal to 18. The polymerization was stopped by introducing 0,6l (STP) of CO into the autoclave after cooling to 30°C. The reactor was allowed to degas slowly, and the polymer obtained was dried at 60°C in vacuum. The polymerization conditions are indicated in Table 1, while the data relating to the polymer are indicated in Table 2. If useful, the file will be updated... I've added in attachment some U.S. Patents about gelling agents. The patents are copyright or respective inventors, this file is (c)opy left! Regards, kazaa81