this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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Which raises an interesting question: what if you cooked it in a zero oxygen environment (say argon, nitrogen, or carbon dioxide... basically welding gases because they're mostly inert). I can't burn in that context, so does it melt? Or do you drive off all the volatiles and are just left with carbon anyway?
If you heat carbon based stuff without oxygen a process called pyrolysis happens. It separates the components into their molecules and molecules into smaller molecules with less weight. During this process you can gain different materials.
Not sure what kind of products are possible with the pyrolysis of egg + welding gases though lol
If you heat carbon in a vacuum (via radiation) you can get melted carbon!
If you heat carbon in a vacuum, it sublimates straight to gas. If you heat it under extreme pressure in an inert gas atmosphere, then it can melt. Unfortunately creating such pressures in the lab is only possible with diamond anvil presses, which are themselves carbon and thus tend to sublimate from the heat, resulting in pressure vessel failure. Doing the experiment on the surface of a neutron star would work, but presents some other difficulties.
Note to self: try this.