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Ethanol is an alcohol which reacts with oxygen to form water and carbon dioxide:

C2H5OH + 3O2 = 3H20 + 2CO2 Exothermic, so heat is generated.

The reaction is initiated by heat such as match or a spark (but see below about explosive limits). The flash point of ethanol is 9C, so if liquid ethanol is heated to that temperature a spark will ignite it in the presence of oxygen. At 8C, ethanol will not ignite unless the match heats it up by at least one degree.

However, there are certain stipulations, known as the Explosive Limits

The Lower Explosive Limit of Ethanol is 3.5% v/v, meaning that there must be at least 3.5% by volume of ethanol vapor in air for it to ignite, and:

The Upper Explosive Limit of Ethanol is 19% v/v.

If the volume of ethanol vapor in air is above 19% then it cannot ignite due to there being insufficient oxygen for it to ignite. If you rapidly immersed a lighted match into pure liquid ethanol it would extinguish the match due to a lack of oxygen in the liquid.

An addition I forgot to mention:

If you look ate the chemical equation, the atomic weight of hydrogen is 1, of carbon is 12 and of oxygen is 16

So a mole of ethanol will weigh 46g and a mole of 3 oxygen molecules is 96. So you need over twice the weight of oxygen as ethanol for it to burn. If we take the respective volumes of the two molecules at average room temperature, the Upper Explosive Limit is based on the fact that you cannot have that required ratio of oxygen to ethanol if the amount of oxygen present by volume to ethanol is only 81% It must be higher for the reaction to proceed.

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14y ago

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