Du Pont White Rocket

[AzoMittle]

I have been working with Teflon (PTFE (PolyTetraFluoroEthelyne)) lately and I love it; it has great physical and chemical properties. This composition is a white flame rocket that I have designed, I have not tested it on any sort of pressure scale/gauge but it is notably more powerful than BP. I would suggest testing with an endburner first. This composition could also work well as a lance or gerb.

 

Du Pont White on its own is compatible with almost every composition, including water bound compositions thanks to the NC. I have tested its exposure to water and have had no reactions and have even burned it after soaking it in water overnight. The biggest problem is mixing with acetone or alcohol bound compositions.

 

It is probably incompatible with chlorates due to the sulfide.

 

Magnesium / Teflon compositions are notoriously static sensitive. They are dangerously energetic as loose powders, never mix loose.

 

This composition should not be pressed or drilled into like any metal composition.

 

All parts by weight except for solvents, solvents are by volume.

 

White Rocket Fuel
-==============-

(By volume)
3.5.....Parts Black Powder
01......Parts Du Pont White

Du Pont White
-===========-
35.....Magnesium, -100-325 mesh
55.....Teflon (PTFE) powder
05.....Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle
03.....Titanium, -120-325 mesh
02.....Red iron oxide
20.....NC Lacquer

NC Lacquer
-=========-

20.....Nitrocellulose, 12%
07.....Acetone
01.....Alcohol

01.....MEK (or Toulene or Xylene)
01.....Coleman Fuel

01.....Mineral Oil

01.....Mineral Spirits

 

Instructions

-=========-

Prepare the Nitrocellulose lacquer by mixing the solvents, equal parts Alcohol, MEK, Coleman Fuel, Mineral Spirits, and Mineral oil with seven parts Acetone. Be aware you will need to use less of this than you would pure acetone, go slow.

 

Add a small starter amount to a mixing container, begin rapidly stirring this while slowly adding the NC. Slowly add NC and solvent cocktail as needed, the goal is a maple syrup or molasses consistency. NC technically has infinite solubility in acetone however practically it competes for solvent. Keep stirring, do not stop until it is completely mixed, you may end up with small floating particles of NC, this is fine. This process can be sped up by using a paint mixer attached to a non-electric handdrill and a large paint can. Allow it to sit for thirty minutes covered in order to soak and then stir again.

 

Mix together the Teflon, Antimony, Red iron oxide, and Titanium. Keep the magnesium separate. The magnesium should be protected appropriately with either linseed oil, stearine, or preferably potassium dichromate.

 

While stirring the NC lacquer, slowly add the teflon/antimony/iron/titanium mixture in small parts.

 

While stirring/folding the NC/teflon mixture, slowly add the magnesium in small parts. Fold this mixture over itself gently, all components -must- be thoroughly incorporated. Like BP we want to trick this into thinking it is a single chemical, the better mixed the better. It should still be a thin syrup to toothpaste consistency, you should be able to pour it, if not add a little more solvent and stir.

 

Pour into a container at least 1" deep. Allow to dry slowly uncovered outside, stir a few times a day. This behaves more like a star composition than NC lacquer in terms of drying, give it several days to a week, not minutes. When dry it should be a thick wax or cream like substance, it may feel oily but should not feel dry and powdery or crumble.

The Du Pont White will most likely have granulated itself from being mixed often, if not granulate it through a 12 mesh screen.

 

From this point it can be mixed with anything, anything from a silver driver to a Buell red, it has some really nice effects but they will absolutely need tuning and will not be similar to the originals. Experiment

 

The point of this post though is the rocket fuel. Mix (by volume) 3.5 parts fine black powder to 1 part Du Pont White fuel. Stirring will not mix this properly, you will need to put on gloves and massage the BP into the white fuel.

 

Details/Notes

-==========-

 

Fluorine is a great oxidizer, fluorine is a stronger oxidizer than oxygen itself and PTFE is long chains of Carbon-Fluorine bonds.

Which brings us to point two, Carbon-Fluorine bonds are one of the strongest bonds, this means it is completely inert, stable, and nothing will stick to it.

And therefore point number three, because of the strong bond it takes a significant amount of energy to break and therefore requires a hot composition.

 

Fluorine loves to redox with Magnesium into MgF2 and a few other species. The magnesium and PTFE would prefer to be in a 1:2 ratio respectively, I have used a slightly lower ratio of 1:1.5 in order to use some additives. Antimony Trisulfide is added primarily to whiten the flame (yes, we are whitening a magnesium flame); I also like to have a sulfur compound around to help 'mop up'. The titanium is used to lower the ignition temperature. Red iron oxide is a burn rate catalyst.

 

The amounts of each of the additives can be adjusted as needed. Just be aware it will be at the sacrifice of the others.

 

Similarly, the overall ratio of BP to Du Pont White Fuel can be adjusted. I have found that it is difficult to ignite below a ratio of 3:1 and will require a hot prime, at below 1.5:1 it has self-extinguished. I also know that my BP is slow.

 

Regarding the solvent cocktail: The acetone is the actual active solvent. The alcohol is a diluent, it makes the whole thing cheaper. The MEK is a cosolvent, working together with the active solvent they work better than either would on its own; MEK can be replaced with toulene or xylene. The Coleman fuel is a slow evaporating cosolvent, I have found it is also seems to permanently alter nitrocellulose to burn slower and brighter, like a fuel-oil lamp. The mineral spirits and mineral oil are used to slow down the drying process, the oil will not dry and the spirits will dry slowly, these can be adjusted as needed to change the drying rate.

 

We want the NC to dry as slowly as possible. It will make for a much softer and waxier product that seems to burn stronger and mix with BP better.

 

Large titanium, aluminum, or charcoal can be added for a tail.

 

Edit for safety.

Edited November 25, 2014 by AzoMittle

[gregh]

Quite interesting, however I would definitely recommend that you not use an electric drill to stir your NC lacquer solution. The acetone vapors could very easily ignite from the brushes in the drill. It might seem far out there, but it can happen. This has been posted before, but is a good example of "drill mixing gone bad."

 

http://www.jeffersonbass.com/excerpt_beyond_the_body_farm.html

Edited November 24, 2014 by gregh

[AzoMittle]

Quite interesting, however I would definitely recommend that you not use an electric drill to stir your NC lacquer solution. The acetone vapors could very easily ignite from the brushes in the drill. It might seem far out there, but it can happen. This has been posted before, but is a good example of "drill mixing gone bad."

 

http://www.jeffersonbass.com/excerpt_beyond_the_body_farm.html

Duly noted.

[a_bab]

1. Why in the world would anyone want to press a composition with Ti around a spindle ?
2. Teflon/Mg compositions are notoriously friction sensitive - Ti makes the matters (far) worse
3. Antimony Trisulfide - useless. It cannot whiten an already very white flame (Mg and Ti). It may lower the ignition temperature, and It will definately make anything sensitive (you say it's "compatible with anything").
4. Fe2O3 - useless. It won't catalyze anything, unless in a perc system. Some people claim it catalyzes BP which is (very) false.
5. The NC low-drying system - well, it just looks plain wrong. Why would you want to have it dry so slowly? What's the benefit?

    

    

   We all like to stirr things up, but you just made my lousy Monday worse. Your formula is nothing but a reason to use your expensive stash of Teflon...somehow.

    

   Sorry.

    

   EDIT: I see this is your first post on Fireworker. Not a bad debut. If they won't rip you in pieces I will present my excuses here.

Edited November 24, 2014 by a_bab

[AzoMittle]

 

1. Why in the world would anyone want to press a composition with Ti around a spindle ?
2. Teflon/Mg compositions are notoriously friction sensitive - Ti makes the matters (far) worse
3. Antimony Trisulfide - useless. It cannot whiten an already very white flame (Mg and Ti). It may lower the ignition temperature, and It will definately make anything sensitive (you say it's "compatible with anything").
4. Fe2O3 - useless. It won't catalyze anything, unless in a perc system. Some people claim it catalyzes BP which is (very) false.
5. The NC low-drying system - well, it just looks plain wrong. Why would you want to have it dry so slowly? What's the benefit?

    

    

   We all like to stirr things up, but you just made my lousy Monday worse. Your formula is nothing but a reason to use your expensive stash of Teflon...somehow.

    

   Sorry.

    

   EDIT: I see this is your first post on Fireworker. Not a bad debut. If they won't rip you in pieces I will present my excuses here.

 

My apologies. I'll never post again and just go live under a rock. Have a good day. Sorry to waste your time.

[a_bab]

Please don't take it like this - I didn't mean to offend you. I always liked your posts and we need innovators.

I personally can't wait to see new formulas, and there are some notable that popped here: Yankee flashers, Pateka blue etc.

 

The plus is you are about the only one who came up with a teflon formula, which is great.

The minus: It contains too many useless ingredients. While it worked right out of your cauldron, there's room for improvement.
But most importantly: it's not safe (stirr flamables with a drill, press Ti based compo etc). Some young may read your formula and press a kick-ass BP rocket.

If one get's fried trying your formula how would you feel?

[LambentPyro]

Fe2O3 - useless. It won't catalyze anything, unless in a perc system. Some people claim it catalyzes BP which is (very) false.

I've seen sugar rocket fuel using KNO3 catalyzed with Red Iron Oxide and compared it to a batch without it. The Iron Oxide containing-batch did in fact have a quicker burn rate.

[AzoMittle]

Please don't take it like this - I didn't mean to offend you. I always liked your posts and we need innovators.

I personally can't wait to see new formulas, and there are some notable that popped here: Yankee flashers, Pateka blue etc.

 

The plus is you are about the only one who came up with a teflon formula, which is great.

The minus: It contains too many useless ingredients. While it worked right out of your cauldron, there's room for improvement.

But most importantly: it's not safe (stirr flamables with a drill, press Ti based compo etc). Some young may read your formula and press a kick-ass BP rocket.

 

If one get's fried trying your formula how would you feel?

 

Sorry I overreacted.

 

I was actually thinking about this all day today. You're right, it isn't safe to use an electric drill or press (or drill) metal compositions. I also failed to mention chlorate incompatibilities due to the sulfide, and the fact that magnesium/teflon compositions are infamously sensitive to static, and that the gases produced are not necessarily what's expected and may include toxic gases.

 

It didn't "work right out of the cauldron", there are no "useless ingredients", I put everything there for a reason. Like any formula, if it doesn't suite your needs change it or don't use it or turn it on its head. I have based this off reading far too many (read: never enough) patents and dtic articles as well as the Hercules Nitrocellulose GreenBook. I have tested known base formulas, variations and variations there on; this is still a young experiment but its not the first batch. I stand by what I said and will do side by side tests.

 

The point of drying the NC slowly is to get a very soft product, I stumbled upon it by accident and have been using it since, it works well as an additive. If want to dry this rockhard as for a microstar or something use a phenolic resin in addition to standard NC lacquer.

 

As for the iron oxide, this isn't BP. There are no nitrates, no perchlorates, no chlorates. This is a thermite-like reaction, note that the magnesium can be replaced with MgAl or Aluminum with varying effects. I speculate that it behaves in the same manner as any other oxidizer and helps make up for some of the cut Teflon by forming MgO.

Edited November 25, 2014 by AzoMittle

[a_bab]

@LambertPyro: Yep, forgot about it: red ferric ox does work for sugar/nitrate compositions.

 

@AzoMittle: I also thought about you and I generally had a misserable day yesterday: I didn't mean to crush you.
As about the ingredients, they do have their precise use in Hercules NC brand, but these may be to simply make the things work better for plant-production: they want the batch to dry slower so they can process it properly, they need oil so it won't stick to the dies during the extrusion phase etc. I'm sure lots of ingredients can be removed with the same results or better. And yes, HF would be among the mildest things in the output gases. The strongest acid in your lungs can't be a good thing.

Now, if I were to confess myself, I also used very complicated formulas which I keept for myself as theyt would have been impractical for others. I have had color formulas with parlon, PVC, colophonium and PVB, alcohol bound just because I had these at hand and it was a pitty not to use them, and an opportunity to dispose them in an ecological way. In the end my regular formulas looked close to the "kitchen sink blue" so I understand you.

Edited November 25, 2014 by a_bab