Certain materials don't burn at high temperatures. But why does the burning of certain materials at high temperatures depend on the relative strength of the bonds between atoms of the material compared to those between the material and say oxygen?
It's all a matter of the energy required to make/break chemical bonds. You need to do a little studying on "redox." Here's a good place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxidation
This has to do with the valency of the outer electon orbitals. If the electon resides in an outer valency orbital the electron will easily be released by a photon transfering the energy easily throughout all the atoms exciting them. also if there are strong van der waals forces acting between the atoms or molecules the energy won't have much to travel and will easily create a high level of entropy.
