False-colored BSE SEM image of the ball formed during lighter ignition. In classic lighter, a spark is obtained by friction of a wheel on a piece of mischmetal - an alloy of iron and light lanthanides, most often ferrocerium, and this leads to the oxide balls of these elements formation. On image, lighter "snowflakes" are skeletal crystals of phases enriched in lanthanides, and the darker space between them is phases enriched in iron. The phase compositions were researched by SEM EDS
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Boris_Lobastov" title="User:Boris Lobastov">Boris Lobastov</a>
CC BY 4.0
<span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>