dangerousamateur Posted April 8, 2020 Author Posted April 8, 2020 I've been studying this out and have a few ideas to test in proving my thoughts about it. I'll post the results here, when I have them.This is extremely important knowledge.Many people playing around with electrolysis and are happy when they ceated "something that burns when mixed with sugar" (I'm one of them) but few people actually seem to use this seriously for our hobbies. No, it's of course not about the water. I assume that deionized stuff from the hardware store is fine.For the final recrystalization maybe one could use something better, real destilled water....
WSM Posted April 8, 2020 Posted April 8, 2020 (edited) This is extremely important knowledge.Many people playing around with electrolysis and are happy when they ceated "something that burns when mixed with sugar" (I'm one of them) but few people actually seem to use this seriously for our hobbies.No, it's of course not about the water. I assume that deionized stuff from the hardware store is fine.For the final recrystalization maybe one could use something better, real destilled water.... I also believe it's vitally important knowledge, and worth the effort to gain it. The safety of using high quality materials when working in the pyrotechnics field cannot be overstated. One of the biggest problems of making oxidizers "good enough" without taking care to make them "pure", is that any hidden impurities can cause serious incompatibilities and unwanted reactions, directly affecting safety during compounding, pressing, use and storage of pyrotechnic articles. I think it's all the parts of the chlor-alkali process; the starting materials, the purification processes, the cleanliness of the setup, the purity of the water, plus all aspects of every step along the way, that need to be carefully controlled. If we're to make the best possible products, we need to consider every step we take and how we can remove and avoid contaminants (or cross contamination) of our oxidizers. This may sound like a lot of bother (and it likely is) BUT, how much trouble is it to maximize SAFETY, when dealing with things that could compromise your well-being if done carelessly or haphazardly. I think the extra efforts required to do the best possible job (to make the optimal quality products), are well worth the time, energy and expense required to accomplish them. As to water purity, I use a TDS (total dissolved solids) meter to get an idea of what's in my sample. EITHER distilled OR deionized H2O will show zero dissolved solids, and can be considered "pure" water, as far as I'm aware. In use, I don't see a difference between them. I've sometimes used RO (reverse osmosis) water, which is far better than tap water, but not as pure as either deionized or distilled water. For example, my tap water often reads ~500 ppm dissolved solids, and the RO water between 20 and 50 ppm, but distilled and deionized water reads 0 ppm dissolved solids. Pure water is best for our chemical reactions and testing. WSM Edited April 12, 2020 by WSM
Recommended Posts