Bright White Star

[dynomike1]

The other day i received some Barium nitrate, Strontium nitrate, and Potassium perchlorate, and they were lumpy. So one of them wound up in an unmarked bag, i thought what the hell i'll make some green or red stars. So after i made the comp i made a line and lit it, brightest white i have seen i mean blinding white, so i figure it was Potassium perchlorate. Here is the formula. I may try to roll some stars tomorrow.

 

PP 50

Mgal 18

Parlon 16

Red gum 10

Dex 5

[Sinken]

Do you have a video?

 

How bright is it compared to simple white?

[dynomike1]

This is the best i could get, no air stirring. This is a 1/2" pumped star.

http://youtu.be/xksfwIFy-e8

[FlaMtnBkr]

There is a fairly strong red tinge being reflected off the ground. The flame also doesn't look very white but more yellow or gold. I can't imagine strontium nitrate not being a strong red though. Maybe you can take some known SrNO3 and mix it up in the same formula and see how it burns just to double check. Or mix some of the unmarked bag with dark aluminum and see how good of a bang you get from a gram assuming you have experience with flash.

 

Just a thought. Even the still image on the YouTube video shows the red at the 1-2 o'clock area.

[dynomike1]

Even still it looks and works better than KN03 white.From where i was standing i haven't seen red or gold, these phone cameras seem to alter colors some. I'll try another one next time i get some air. Ok i went back and burnt some more and there is a little gold in it.I think those colors were coming from the smoke. Here is another video i just took. Star is from same batch.

Edited August 23, 2013 by dynomike1

[FlaMtnBkr]

Yeah I still see quite a bit of red in the reflection. Maybe the bright white is from the high metal content. I don't know, I was just pointing out what I saw.

[psyco_1322]

If it was either Barium or Strontium nitrate, there would be an unmistakable color to the comp. It is definitely not either of those. It is possible to make white burning comps with barium nitrate though, but with the chlorine donor, it would be sure to come out sort of green.

 

On the other hand, if only one was not marked, why could you not just read the other two and decipher what the mystery one was? Usually KClO4 will be free flowing and "dusty", if not, it's in hard, solid lumps. All the barium nitrate I have seen is sort of clumpy/crumbly (like feta cheese), and has almost a damp appearance.

[taiwanluthiers]

Barium nitrate, without parlon makes exceptionally bright white light... something about the barium oxide formed causing it to be really bright. Parlon isn't necessary in any white formulation... Try Bleaser's #26 which is already very bright. It is a strobe star however so find something that contains barium nitrate and MgAl...

[Mumbles]

You can definitively tell all three apart based on water solubility. They're about an order of magnitude different from each other.

 

KClO4 - ~1.5g/100mL

Ba(NO3)2 - ~10g/100mL

Sr(NO3)2 - ~60g/100mL