Date: 5 Jan 2010 Comments: 0

Napalm is a thickened composition based on gasoline into which substances are added in order to get a gelatine-like substance for military uses. It has been developed by the chemical department at Harvard. According to Louis Fieser, the name of napalm derives from the first letters of the names of the thickeners (naphtenic and palmitic acids), or coprecipitated aluminium salts of naphthenic and palmitic acids. Currently, napalm is the generic name for several flammable liquids that have been used in warfare, are are still used, often based on jellied gasoline.

One of the major problems with early incendiary compositions and mixtures was that they splashed and drained far too easily. Because of the mentioned problem, a gasoline gel was developed over time, so that the range and effectiveness of flamethrowers would be increased, but its manufacture was often difficult because it often involved natural rubber (also known as latex), which, at that time, was pretty expensive and was already in high demand for other war industry purposes (for example, truck tires). Napalm presented a cheaper alternative to latex (rubber-based) incendiaries.

There are also various additional substances that can be added to napalm. If one adds to napalm a metal (potassium or sodium), one would get a mixture that would react very intensively with water, because these metals in contact with water produce hydrogen, which further enhances combustion.

White phosphorous has also been added to napalm sometimes. When this element is added, napalm burns at a significantly higher temperature but it doesn’t burn as long as in the case with no phosphorus added. However, since white phosphorus is toxic to this form of napalm presents an even more powerful weapon.

Napalm with added thermites (a mixture of iron oxide and aluminum powder) produces an extremly hot flame. The result of the combustion of thermite is glowing red and hot melted iron at temperatures over 2500°C. It is also interesting and important to mention that in this case, a special kind of igniter is needed because normal napalm does not burn at temperatures high enough to ignite the thermite composition.

There are also many other interesting properties of napalm. If someone is interested in learning more about the chemistry of napalm and other interesting compounds, it’s never a bad idea to start with some of the chemistry related tutorials.