coat white phosphorus(burns on contact with air) nano particles with an ultra thin coating of an organically soluble material. the nano particles would have to be small enough to get past the air filter in a vehicle but if they do they will combust on contact with fuel. as soon as the air / nano particle mixture is mixed with fuel, either in a carburetor or in the cylinder it ignites causing the engine to stop and possibly causing engine damage.this wouldn't work on vehicles that have gas turbines or on hydrogen based engines.-- RichardT, Jan 03 2010 Gas Bomb Car Stopper Gas_20bomb_20car_20stopper [bungston, Jan 29 2010] What's the application? Law enforcement, prank, ...?-- jutta, Jan 03 2010 law enforcement or military take your pick. Anywhere you have to stop a internal combustion engine. I was thinking that you could package these in grenades/shells for infantry use. you could also use said gas as an effective roadblock. it's unlikely pranksters would have the cash to purchase this stuff though.-- RichardT, Jan 03 2010 Just curious, what coating are you going to give them that is soluble in gasoline/diesel, but not stomach acid or mucous membranes?-- MechE, Jan 04 2010 Ah, [MechE], exactly what I was thinking. Perhaps rename this "horrible torture gas" or something similar?-- Custardguts, Jan 04 2010 so far as I undestand the body's fluids are water based. chlorine gas reacts with water to form hydro chloric acid while tear gas also reacts to form an irritant.
polypropylene, used in yogurt containers and as expanded polystyrene(aka Styrofoam) in packaging, is soluble in gasoline(as myriad youtube videos have shown)yet pollutes rivers very well and is not soluble in water. many people may also be familiar with pine sap. a great waterproof sealant, also sticky and a bitch to get off clothing and skin. it's soluble in organic solvents but not water. as for stomach acid ... well who knows what it will dissolve but so long as you're not sucking on the aerosol nozzle on the anti vehicle gas canister you should be fine.-- RichardT, Jan 04 2010 So you want to package elemental phosphorus in tiny nano containers that are air tight and do not react with phosphorus but do need to be rapidly soluble in diesel and gasoline, but not the oil on your skin. Yeah, how? Unless you can explain how you intend to do this it's nano magic and does not rise to the level of an invention. I wish I knew if/how this could be done doesn't cut it. Remember: Small enough to pass through an automotive air filter, rejects the entry of O2, rapidly soluble in organic solvent, but not skin oil. After you propose how you think this could be done we can address if this would or would not stop an engine.-- WcW, Jan 04 2010 now that you mention it, skin oil, that does pose a problem. Though I wasn't positing nano as an explanation for how it worked so much as a way to get past air filters. I don't know anything about the scales involved but I figured that a thin coating of something organically soluble around a really tiny particle would dissolve on contact with diesel or gasoline, allowing it contact with air. It probably wouldn't work and would quite problematic.
Now that i think about it, something that burns on contact with a hot engine piston might do just as well. anyone know of substance which could mess up a diesel engine were it introduced into it's air supply? Something that would prematurely ignite the diesel in the piston resulting in a stall? might a flammable gas cause problems?-- RichardT, Jan 05 2010 It's tricky. You could introduce accelerents like ethyl ether (directly into the intake of a running engine) or flood out the engine with CO2. Pure O2 will destroy an engine in short order. Powders are basically out but corrosive gasses might work. A good solution might be to gum the engine up with some sort of deposit forming polymer that you introduce as a monomer or that reacts with fuel or combustion byproducts to form a stable deposit.-- WcW, Jan 05 2010 a friend of my dad came up with a similar solution for killing tanks in warfare, you hit them with a small fuel bomb that blows high octane fuel vapors into the intake, throwing off the ignition and stalling the engine. why not coat the front of the car with a fine mist of glue vapor it will clog the air intake in seconds and be a non explosive option-- Arcanus, Jan 29 2010 There must be something about the air intake of diesel tanks to protect against this sort of thing.
I would add these little "nano pho" go pellets with a special lever for when I needed that extra umph. I think it would be better than nitro. I think you could jump the Snake River canyon on a Vespa with this stuff, and look good doing it.-- bungston, Jan 29 2010 random, halfbakery