Time lapse video of ‘tin pest’ metallic phase change
Really amazing. What’s going on in this cool time-lapse video from Italian YouTuber wwwperiodictableru isn’t a chemical reaction per se–it’s not oxidation or some other type of traditional corrosion. Turns out metallic or “white” tin spontaneously changes its so-called alpha crystal structure at temperatures below XX to the crumbly beta structure of “gray” tin. It’s the same stuff before and after–just different allotropes of the same element. The transformation, known as “tin pest” (Wikipedia), catalyzes itself–once it starts it just gets faster and faster.
