Random Factoid: Perlite

Image via WikipediaEver wondered what Perlite is?

It's the stuff that goes in between the two layers of steel in a Vacuum Insulated Evaporator (VIE) which is used for storing about 10 days worth of oxygen on hospital grounds.

It's a form of volcanic glass, which when heated expands from being a glass to being about 10-15 times the original volume. This means that it becomes very low density, and also acts as a good insulator.

It is also used in plaster (as in for walls) and in hydroponics because it's very good at holding water.

Don't know much about history....

Did you know that cyclopropane was discovered in 1881 by August Freund?

It's chemical structure can be represented in standard molecular shorthand by a simple equilateral triangle, because each Carbon has 2 bonds to other carbons, and is bound to 2 hydrogen atoms as well.

It's mixture with oxygen is highly explosive, because it breaks down to form linear propane, which is itself a potentially explosive reaction, and there is a reaction with the oxygen as well!

And we used to use this as an anaesthetic gas....