In wire form you have a relatively large surface area so its reactivity matters more, the bright light it emits when burning is quite impressive.
I've seen a few crazy thing too. I use to work for Laidlaw Environmental. Many years ago. Just about the only place you could get a job in the 70-80s. Turned out to be VERY informative. I learned EVERYTHING will kill you. simple. Question was, how fast... LOL BUT I learned how to be VERY safe around everything. Good lord we processed cyanide solvents from the Silicon Valley. The only thing we (ME) didn't fool with was radioactive, materials. YUP I saw a few water reactive materials.
A lot of that waste was from the Steel Mill foundries.
BUT for IC I guess sodium is out, well added lead, magnesium, alu, still on the menu, now MYLAR? I found a good source for pure Tungsten, now I have to figure is implementation.
Nickel/silver?
white/gold?
rhodium? what is that shi% anyway...Has some wonderful property apparently, it's used enough. I've never used it , Knowingly.
Regards