titanium

[ronmoper76]

How does titanium and the dihydride version perform vs similar mesh aluminum. I came across some of both in a extremely fine state and wanted to experiment. It lights with a lighter and burns on a spoon quite well,just like dark aluminum does.but when tossed into the air its way more reactive,it literally crackles and pops if you toss it off the side of a brick wall like its crackle mix.Does it have the same moisture issues with water?

I seem to get mixed opinions online,some say its impervious to water and the most user friendly metal. But i also found articles saying saying don't get moisture anywhere near it or it would react violently. Which is it?

[Crazy Swede]

Both ordinary titanium and titanium hydride are stable in contact with moisture, even as very fine powders.

 

The hydride always burns slower and forms less sensitive compositions, when comparing powders with the same surface area per weight unit.

 

It is difficult to compare titanium to aluminium since they have different burning behaviour and seldom are found with equal particle shape and size distribution.

[Mumbles]

Many times, very fine titanium or zirconium powders are shipped wet for safety. There's no issues with moisture really.

 

For my uses, I don't find finely powdered titanium all that useful. My preference is for the longer hanging spark trail it produces in coarser meshes, which usually finds me using material 100 mesh or coarser. I can see fine material having uses though. I've always kind of wondered about it's addition to strobe pots to give it a little extra pop and brightness. It has uses in close proximity stuff where the bright effect is desired, but not much spread. I have heard that it can increase sensitivity of some compositions.

 

What were you thinking about trying?

[ronmoper76]

I don't have anything that course,i really need to add that to my supplies. I was hoping for a safer alternative to other metals,I do often use aluminum and magnesium and it usually comes without a hitch,but I have had bad luck with such mixes and they heat up on me randomly with the funky sulfur smell when im pressing and i have thrown out to many batches of star mix. I got this great idea and got a bunch of titanium after reading a article about it ,the dihydride in particular supposedly could replace any metal in most recipes and i thought it would be alot more user friendly. i scratched the shit out of a 75$ star plate with the titanium 120 mesh,i also have some white and yellow spark titanium 200-300 mesh that did not scratch it nearly as bad. Its vicious on my tools,and i just got a new one from firesmith tools recently. I thought if it was fine enough i could get around that possibly. Finer usually means faster with metals though which might be very detrimental to some recipes... Im sitting on like 10 or 15lbs of titanium that seems like a horrible idea now that i have a 350$ star plate without a scratch yet. It seems like a stupid idea now,and i have only been using it in the delay portion of rockets as of late.

Edited April 14, 2021 by ronmoper76

[Crazy Swede]

The only ordinary use of titanium in fireworks is to create sparks. It cannot be used as a substitute for magnesium or magnalium in colour compositions.

[ronmoper76]

i understand that now. I"m gonna burn it off slowly in primes and stars if i can. It was idiotic from the start,i think i was smoking to much that day and then i read a skylighter add,i should have hid the credit card that day.

[ronmoper76]

titanium hydride burns aggressively with a green flame when its in a fine state. I was thinking it could possibly replace magnesium?.....haha,actually i think its yellow but it looks green to me

Edited April 16, 2021 by ronmoper76

[ronmoper76]

The only ordinary use of titanium in fireworks is to create sparks. It cannot be used as a substitute for magnesium or magnalium in colour compositions.

actually i'm not so sure i agree.im testing various mixes,i did emerald green tonight and completely replaced the magnalium with dihydride and it burnt beautifully,i'm fine with the results there. I'm slowly making 100 gram batches of different mixes to see what else i come up with. i use my wife as the judge on color because of how wack some colors look to my eyes....i suppose i should add that i have the dihydride at the same mesh as the magnalium that i replaced

Edited April 16, 2021 by ronmoper76

[Crazy Swede]

It contributes with the high temperature but it does not expand the flame like magnesium does so the light intensity will be lower. Also, the refractory titanium dioxide formed during combustion will dilute the color with continuous radiation, making it more of a pastel shade.

 

So, it is not impossible to use but the result will not be the same, compared to when using magnesium or magnalium.

 

Edit,

Actually, I was talking about pure titanium now. The hydride might be better because of the gaseous hydrogen it will release that perhaps will help with the flame expansion?

Edited April 16, 2021 by Crazy Swede

[ronmoper76]

I'm not so sure to be honest. Perhaps i can record a few short clips and upload them later on.I could get a much better opinion on here because you guys are familiar with alot of these formulas. I tried ruby red today and it appears to work well also but for all i know i could be off a lot. I should have done side by sides of with and without the magnalium to get a better idea,they definitely have a large flame bright flame that accompanies the color.

Edited April 16, 2021 by ronmoper76

[Mumbles]

I've wondered a bit about the hydrogen release factor as well, but most of what I've seen is in the form of sparks. It's hard to put into words, but it's not quite as vibrant as pure titanium. There is relatively little hydrogen by mass in titanium hydride. It maxes out around 4 wt%, but I'd expect the material being supplied in the US is probably lower than that. The information available is pretty sparse, and I'm not sure I've ever seen a value provided. The color is more comparable to lower hydrogen levels from comparisons of whatI was able to find at the time.

 

The literature information on titanium hydride pyrotechnic compositions is also not all that deep. Most of it relates to initiators from what I've been able to find. Much of that uses titanium subhydride as well.