Soak ordinary cotton (cellulose) in a strong solution of nitric acid --- and you'll probably die from the toxic fumes! :-)
But your next-of-kin will inherit something that looks like ordinary cotton, but is actually "nitrocellulose", or gun cotton. It's a relative of nitroglycerin, and is used in "smokeless gunpowder"; and by magicians as "flash paper". That's because it burns explosively fast, and leaves no ash or smoke. Poof! It's gone!
In fact, it burns so fast, that normally all you can see is a bright yellow flash. But in this video, time is slowed to less than 1/60th of normal speed, rendering visible the normally hidden detail of this nearly instantaneous combustion.
:-)
