Chemical Forums

Specialty Chemistry Forums => Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Forum => Topic started by: Corvettaholic on June 17, 2004, 07:19:40 PM

Title: matches and your body
Post by: Corvettaholic on June 17, 2004, 07:19:40 PM

Are matchheads mostly red phosphorus, sulphur, or both? When I was in basic training, we would eat/lick a couple matchheads from our MRE's, and supposedly when we started sweating (which was often in missouri) it would keep bugs away. Will your body sweat out stuff like that and act as a natural bug repellant, or was it all psychological?

Title: Re:matches and your body
Post by: Limpet Chicken on June 21, 2004, 10:25:40 PM

Strike anywhere matches are a mixture of phosphorus sesquisulfide, sulfur and either a chlorate (or more probably) a perchlorate salt, the potassium salt I think.

The safety matches are similar, the red phosphorus is on the striking pad, i'm not too sure of the composition on the heads, but there is often some sulfide of antimony in there I believe.