Colored fire and other experiments questions...

[Zippiot]

Well I have potassium nitrate, and extremely limited access to exotic chemicals. They may seem common to many of you but fireworks and such are extremely illegal and restricted in my and neighboring counties...
Model rockets are legal though
Well I wanted to make some colored fire formulas and such for my simple rockets (which for some reason stopped working...). I have seen many like 4 parts kno3 2 parts coal 1 part sulfer and 3 parts sodium chloride (it took me over 20 mins to realize this is table salt...). I tried it but didnt have any sulfer, failed miserably... The salt just plugged up combustion...

Well does anybody know of a commonly found chemical that will add some flare or power to a simple kno3 mixture?


Preferably something very visible like blue or green...

To be honest it is hader to get powdered iron oxide than it is to get most other chemicals in my area, a while back a kid made some thermite and lit it on the hood of a cop car...messed things up for the rest of us

[marksteamnz]

Iron Oxide = red ochre used as a tint in plaster. Check the specs but should be over 90% Iron oxide.

Colours greeny blue from copper sulphate. Battery acid (aka Sulphuric) plus copper wire keep adding copper untill it stops reacting. very very carefully (the fumes are bad) boil off the liquid. the blue crystals are copper sulphate also known as blue stone. Check out a large horticultural supplier copper sulphate is used as a spray.

VW crank cases are magnesium. carefully keeping things cool NOT WITH WATER hack saw away for a few hours collect the powder for a BRIGHT white flame.

[Zippiot]

I found some ge silicone II, any idea how to prep the stuff?
Or is this the main fuel/binder that will replace what I was using before (sugar)?
Also anything I can grab at the hardware store that will change the color? I heard roach powder burns bright red (barium nitrate or something like that) but red and orange...doesnt seem worth it...

[Zippiot]

I got 93% sulfuric acid...it cleans the copper but doesnt eat it up...and help?

[bob000555]

a sulphur zink rocket makes a nice green flame... and that way of geting copper sulphate will kill u order it from http://www.unitednuclear.com/chem.htm if u relly want it..

[marksteamnz]

a sulphur zink rocket makes a nice green flame... and that way of geting copper sulphate will kill u order it from http://www.unitednuclear.com/chem.htm if u relly want it..

Nope Zinc Sulphur has a White yellow flame with gray/white smoke (lots of it)
and yes I've built and launched two.
If you want more info on Zinc sulphur read the sticky at the start of this thread
The method of getting CuSO4 by reacting Copper with Sulphric acid will not kill anyone with an ounce of common sense.......hmm........OK I see your point.

[Zippiot]

It gave off so many toxic fumes!!!

AND MY PYREX FLASK SHATTERED!!! WHAT IS GOING ON?

It might be better to buy the stuff if it really adds a nice color, otherwise screw it I'll spend the money on food.

[Dang911]

you don't know what the hell you are doing thats what!!!!!

[Zippiot]

Did it in a chem lab, under the hood with the door closed. The toxic fume alarm started going off so we turned off the heat and kept the vac on.

[Dang911]

Did you have a thermometer monitoring the temperature?

Glad to hear you atleast did in under a hood. :)

[Zippiot]

Actually we didnt have a thermometer, the teacher was mad enough when the alarm went off...
The point was to boil it so we set it on a hot plate, you can set the temp of the hot plate but I doubt its accuracy. He gave us an old one they were gonna throw away...Set it around 350 degrees

[Dang911]

Don't forget your creating an exothermic reaction dissolving copper in sulfuric. That alone can create enough heat to break a beaker if you don't watch your temp!!!

[Zippiot]

I definately did not notice that, as the copper pieces were left in A PLASTIC CONTAINER for 3 days...until it turned ugly brown.

The fumes looked just like steam, but we wafted some after the alarm stopped goin off, near instant gag...I don't even wanna know wut it actually was or how toxic it is.

What was funny was that the copper barely dissolved, most likely because the sulfuric acid is drain cleaner (it is still around 93-95%). This definately helped to slow the reaction. Teacher wouldn't give us real stuff so we had to improvise.

[bob000555]

maybe you can turn this into a rocket the vidio shows a huge blue flame... just make a hybred rocket with the acid mixture being shot over aluminum and a lighter at the end...it would own!
edit opps forgot the vid hear it is
http://www.cci.ethz.ch/mainmov.html?exp ... language=1

[Zippiot]

Oh my, I was aware that pouring [iron possibly] into sulfuric acid gives off buttloads of hydrogen gas, but if iron works then other metals could work the same as they are all in the same elemental family. But the copper solution giving off copper molecules which change the clear flame to blue, amazing!