psymon Posted November 21, 2006 Posted November 21, 2006 Here's one for you all. I had a bonfire the other week and of course I sat with it all night. Well as it was burning I noticed plenty of bright green flames around one bit of wood. Also later on in the evening a log burned with a really nice blue flame... Just wondering how this is produced and why? Could it be the wood containing chemicals or are these gasses given off by the burning wood?I have made stars with really complicated chemical lists to make these colours so how comes just burning a log would give me some of the nicest flames I have ever seen?
ewest Posted November 21, 2006 Posted November 21, 2006 It's the different gases in the wood being released that make those colors. I wish I could tell you exactly which they were, but I don't know. As a side note though, if you enjoy a colored bonfire, get some Copper II Chloride (Cupric Chloride, or Campfire Blue). It's soluable in water so you can soak wood chips or pine cones in it. Or my favorite, mix it with Paraffin wax and coat pine cones with it. Throw some of them in the bonfire and it'll burn Purple, Red, Green and Blue. You can even just toss the powder directly in the fire, but mixing it with wax and putting it on pine cones lasts the longest; up to 45 minutes. I love that stuff, every time I go camping I'm the only one with a Purple and Red camp fire
psymon Posted November 21, 2006 Author Posted November 21, 2006 That sounds like a giggle... Maybe I will get hold of some. Fires are very hypnotic. I can sit there in front of a fire and hours will fly past. It happened last time I had one. I lit the fire at about 6pm. Then at about 10:30 I came in for a drink and nearly had a heart attack. I thought it was 7pm... I have invented a time machine...
cplmac Posted November 22, 2006 Posted November 22, 2006 I think you can get different colors with different chlorides. Skylighter actually sells all these chlorides and describes them as pine cone red, pine cone blue, etc. etc. Unfortunately they are usually sold out.
rocket Posted November 22, 2006 Posted November 22, 2006 I must say CuCl2 gives a lovely blue colour to wood when it’s soaked in a CuCl2 solution. I made the CuCl2 by adding CuO to hydrochloric acid.
maximusg Posted November 26, 2006 Posted November 26, 2006 I made some copper chloride today. pretty funky stuff. now the way this gives off colour so easily it must be able to be used in star comps... im gonna do some experimenting. see if i can get it to make some pretty coloure with kno3.
Mumbles Posted November 26, 2006 Posted November 26, 2006 The problem is it is pretty hygroscopic. You can try. I have seen a few formulas, but never heard anything great. It should be noted that anhydrous CuCl2 is brown. Perhaps Red Gum or shellac binding will do some good in terms of keeping it dry. I am also unsure how well nitrate will work. Everyone I know of is chlorate or perchlorate based.
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