Bleser Red (organic, chlorate based)

[Potassiumchlorate]

Composition type: organic red star composition

 

Creator: David Bleser

 

Colour/effect: red star

 

Composition by weight:

 

Potassium chlorate: 38

Strontium nitrate: 38

Red gum 6

Charcoal, airfloat: 12

Hexachlorobenzene 2

Dextrin/SGRS 4

 

Incompabilites: sulfur and sulfur compounds, ammonium compounds.

 

Preparation: wet with water/alcohol 75/25 or with almost no alcohol if using SGRS.

 

I'm usually in favour of metal fueled colours, but I like to dry different compositions of all kinds. You should never lock yourself to just one option, neither in life in general nor in pyrotechnics.

 

Made 10 mm pumped stars (my standard method for making test stars; if a composition burns well as a pumped star, it will burn even better when cut and as good when rolled; it's also the easiest way to make very few stars of a good quality). I also used PVC instead of HCB, but since PVC is a poorer chlorine donor, a star with HCB can be expected to be better, not worse.

 

I dried them for less than 48 hours, and, despite a relative air humidity of around 80%, a star shot from a star gun with 1.5 grams of BP ignited and burned very well without any prime. I did this in daytime, although gloomy here. The colour was not really blood red or ruby but a bit towards magenta or maybe salmon. Not worthless anyway. Cheap and easily ignited.

[AdmiralDonSnider]

Nice description. Store them in zip bags or airtight containers; they´ll soak moisture over time.

[Potassiumchlorate]

I just made a small test batch, but I will if I make a big batch for practical usage.

[50AE]

I think that chlorate organic reds work very well without an additional chlorine donor. I use a modification of a Hardt's formula:

 

Potassium chlorate 67

Strontium carbonate 18

Red gum 6

Shellac 4

Dextrin 5

 

The formula has a good burn rate, while it benefits of the color enhancement from the shellac. I think it's the most beautiful chlorate/SrCO3 red I've ever done. No hygroscopicity issues.

[Potassiumchlorate]

I'll try that. I like your comps. They are simple, and with the high percentage of potassium chlorate they become cheap too.

 

I should have started with strontium carbonate myself, since the climate where I live is pretty moist except for in the winter. I have to mill and dry my strontium nitrate in the oven before putting it in airtight containers, and when making water bound red stars, drying is just possible in the winter. I have made mostly acetone/parlon bound stars since 2009, but sometimes I think that water/dextrin or water/SGRS bound stars are so simple and "clean", so to speak.

[Karlos]

Potassium chlorate: You can mention priming technique. Standart BP don't give succes and contain sulphur.

[50AE]

I would be more worried working so much with acetone than priming chlorate stars with BP. Flammable fumes make me very nervous.

If you don't feel priming with BP, just put an intermediate layer of sulfurless BP. Then roll some regular. I wouldn't trust on sulfurless BP for 100% ignition, but I could be wrong.

[Potassiumchlorate]

I usually use a "system" completely based on potassium chlorate: chlorate stars, H3+5-10% silicon as a prime and H3 burst. Another good prime is KP/red gum/silicon, 70:20:10, though there are probably cheaper mixes. I have this issue with the damp weather, though, so I rather make primes that are "over the top" than failing. Edited October 31, 2011 by Potassiumchlorate

[Potassiumchlorate]

I would be more worried working so much with acetone than priming chlorate stars with BP. Flammable fumes make me very nervous.

 

Acetone is a bit nasty; the fumes are both flammable and make you feel nauseaus, unless you use a real gasmask or similar. Though you can use metal fuels together with perchlorates and even chlorates without having to protect them with potassium dichromate or anything. They are ready to use within a couple of hours. Though it's more expensive, of course. Organic chlorate stars are cheaper, safer to mix, and you don't need that much protection when rolling them.

[Mumbles]

I haven't gotten a chance to try it yet, but I picked this one up from Mike Swisher a few weeks ago. I tend to trust his judgment in formula. I'm sure there is room for modifications. I would think it would benefit from more shellac. As I said I haven't tried this one, but a little chlorine donor content has helped some organic formulas I've used before. It tends to remove some of the orangey red color sometimes present in my experience.

 

Chlorate potash 24 lbs.

Strontium carbonate 8

Red gum 3

Shellac 1

Dextrine 2

[Potassiumchlorate]

I have never seen an organic strontium nitrate red with potassium chlorate being orangey. Strontium carbonate I have only tried once, and that was red and nice too.

 

50AE has very much potassium chlorate in his stars, but they seem to work very well. Potassium chlorate is also one of the cheapest chemicals in Europe, if you're a private citizen with no VAT-number.

 

If I may be so rude *ehm*...maybe European chemicals are purer? Even fertilizer grade potassium nitrate is 99.8% pure here.

Edited November 1, 2011 by Potassiumchlorate

[50AE]

I put just enough chlorate to let the star comp have a slightly negative oxygen balance. This is the goal to make pure colors.

Remember that shellac and red gum need quite of oxygen. The balance for shellac is 0,433g fuel per g oxygen, ~0,5 for red gum. and ~0,84 for dextrin

 

~2,55g of KClO3 are needed to make a gram of oxygen.

 

In the red comp I wrote above, the total oxygen needed for all fuels is:

 

4/0,433 + 6/0,5 + 5/0,84 = 27,19

 

Then you multiply this by 2,55

27,19 * 2,55 = 69,33g of KClO3

 

But I put 67 instead of 69 for the slightly negative oxygen balance.

The SrCO3 doesn't give up O2 but it would if the comp had Mg/MgAl

 

The formula of Mike Swisher is even more oxygen negative. He uses 24 parts KClO3 instead of 27.

Edited November 1, 2011 by 50AE

[Potassiumchlorate]

The ideal is of course no oxygen in the fuel and all oxygen in the oxizider. Hexamine is a very good fuel (just carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen) but most probably dangerous with chlorate. Among organic fuels shellac comes closest, and thankfully it's totally compatible with chlorates.

 

About the SrCO₃: it must form strontium chloride even in a "colder" flame, so it has to give up the carbon and oxygen in one form or another. What you mean is that it doesn't work as an oxidizer without metallic fuel, right? It only takes part "passively" in the reaction(?)

 

And one more thing: it gets much more complicated when calculating with metal fuels and parlon. For 12 grams of magnesium, 12 grams of parlon and 6 grams of red gum, I'd have to use 111 grams of barium chlorate according to the fuel value. However, the fuel value of parlon is doubtful. If I let the parlon out, I get that I need about 62 grams (adjusted from 62,9). In reality I use 70 grams. Is that overoxidized or not, considering that parlon actually is a fuel but that its real fuel value is much less than the theoretical? Barium chlorate is poorer in oxygen than potassium chlorate; 3,16 grams are needed to get 1 gram of oxygen.

 

This composition works, though It feels like it's not optimal. I can't increase the magnesium more than 1-2%, because then the colour is spoiled. I can increase the red gum, but not much. I can substitute 15-20% of potassium chlorate or perchlorate for barium chlorate, though. Though that also affects the colour a bit.

Edited November 1, 2011 by Potassiumchlorate

[50AE]

SrCO3 does decompose, but it gives off SrO and CO2.

 

It's more complex with metallic fueled stars, they all seem to be very oxygen negative. That's the benefit of parlon, it's a bad fuel and doesn't burn completely, AFAIK.

[Potassiumchlorate]

I have tried barium chlorate with parlon. It does burn, but the colour is destroyed. This is the theoretical reaction: 6C₂H₃Cl (approx.) + 5Ba(ClO₃)₂ = 12CO₂ + 6H₂O + 6HCl + 5BaCl₂

 

I don't know why it is destroyed, though. Too low temperature? It couldn't possibly be too high, since you can use +12% Mg with barium chlorate without destroying it.

 

We are getting quite a bit off topic now, but this is interesting.

 

We were discussing blue stars in another thread, and I tested different KClO₄/CuO/hexamine/parlon compositions. I finally found out that another member had made this one, very similar to Pihko KP#2 but with hexamine as the fuel:

 

KP 62

CuO 13

Hexamine 10

Parlon 15

 

Though taking in account that both KP and CuO are oxidizers and that parlon has a very bad fuel value, the hexamine and parlon should rather change place:

 

KP 62

CuO 13

Hexamine 15

Parlon 10

 

But on the other hand KP is a lousy chlorine donor. Some Pihko AP with hexamine instead of red gum would be better then.

 

One rule of thumb is that with parlon and magnesium same percentage of both are good for red and green. For blue parlon stars with CuO I have found out that the same amount of CuO and parlon also seems to be a good rule of thumb. So maybe an acceptable compromise could be:

 

KP 62

CuO 13

Hexamine 12

Parlon 13

 

or

 

KP 62

CuO 13

Hexamine 11

Parlon 14.

 

10% of hexamine simply seems to be too little as the only "real" fuel.

Edited November 1, 2011 by Potassiumchlorate