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Has any work of fiction contained an idea of a chemical weapon that acts as a catalyst of cellulose auto-oxidation and causes spontaneous ignition of anything made of paper (and possibly wood) already when it's present in air at ppm concentrations? Someone must have thought of that during the cold war arms race, because it's not thermodynamically impossible and there's no restrictive limit for how small concentrations a catalyst can be effective at. If it could be made effective enough, a few kilograms of that kind of chemical could torch a whole city if spread in the air as an aerosol. And really scary for the enemy if they don't know what's causing it.
I got this idea when looking at an Aliens movie where a drop of alien's corrosive saliva ate through several floors/ceilings in a way that wouldn't be stoichiometrically possible unless it's something that catalyzes the air oxidation of metal at room temperature and isn't consumed in the process.
I got this idea when looking at an Aliens movie where a drop of alien's corrosive saliva ate through several floors/ceilings in a way that wouldn't be stoichiometrically possible unless it's something that catalyzes the air oxidation of metal at room temperature and isn't consumed in the process.