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Bohrok
Jul3-10, 12:43 AM
A friend asked me for an interesting way to destroy a boxful of flashcards for a video scholarship. Being almost the 4th of July, I mentioned making some kind of fireworks out of them, but I want to give him something a little more... safe and legal. I tried looking on Google for chemical reactions with paper but didn't find anything I was looking for. Better than something like gasoline and a match, perhaps burning them but in a different way, or "dissolving" the flashcards with some chemicals...
Any good suggestions?

kateman
Jul5-10, 10:19 PM
I don't know what a flashcard is but paper is basically a collection of cellulsoic/lignocellulosic material. There isn't much you can do with it alone, but perhaps take advantage of its physical properties like using its ability to reform when wet and its porosity by incorporating impurities to give a desired effect.

ChemHopeful
Jul16-10, 03:41 PM
you could explore some treatment that involved nitric acid, to produce nitrocellulose

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrocellulose