hashashan Posted December 7, 2006 Posted December 7, 2006 Hi, Recently i decided to recalculate the ratios between sugar and KNO3 for rockets and to make sure that everything is ok. This is what i found out : This is the reaction that happnes(correct me if im wrong) : 9.6KNO3 + C12H22O11 = 4.8K2CO3+7.2CO2+11H2O+4.8N2 from here we can see that the perfect ratio is 74(nitrate):26(sugar) it totaly contradicts the classic ratios for rockets ... WTF?? anyone has a good explanation?
Crazy Swede Posted December 7, 2006 Posted December 7, 2006 It is always hard to predict the reaction path of pyrotechnics since there are always several factors that will have an influence on the reaction. For example there is never perfect contact between the ingredients and there usually are some secondary reactions with the oxygen in the air. Chemists call this kinetics, the study of chemical reaction rates, and within pyrotechnic chemistry, it seems that we have more kinetic factors than we can keep track of! So, the reason why pyrotechnic recipies seldom are stochiometrically balanced is that in practice, fuel rich compositions usually works best! Edit:What makes you sure that the formula you used is corect? Have you seen the formula att Nakka's site, based on 65/35 composition? C12H22O11 + 6.29 KNO3 -> 3.80 CO2 + 5.21 CO + 7.79 H2O + 3.07 H2 + 3.14 N2 + 3.00 K2CO3 + 0.27 KOH
hashashan Posted December 7, 2006 Author Posted December 7, 2006 no i didnt see this formula. this makes things a bit clearer ... thanks
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