testing perchlorate for purity?

[chrisward90]

hi all. ive just ordered some potassium perchlorate from oliverbrown.co.uk and was wondering if there is any way to test its purity ive just tried mixing up some rocket fuel with it instead of using chlorate i tried setting some off with conc. sulfuric acid and nothing happend the sulfuric acid just kinda started attacking the sugar and turned it into a black paste type liquid do you think i used to much sulfuric acid

[Mumbles]

What sort of impurities are you looking to test for? There really isn't a universal "this perchlorate is XX% pure" test.

 

I don't know how sensitive the sugar and sulfuric acid test is to chlorate.

[ollie1016]

hi all. ive just ordered some potassium perchlorate from oliverbrown.co.uk and was wondering if there is any way to test its purity ive just tried mixing up some rocket fuel with it instead of using chlorate i tried setting some off with conc. sulfuric acid and nothing happend the sulfuric acid just kinda started attacking the sugar and turned it into a black paste type liquid do you think i used to much sulfuric acid

 

I seriously wouldn't worry about the purity of chemicals from oliverbrown! All of his chemicals are very good quality.

[Col]

This is an interesting read

http://creagan.net/fireworks/erichunkins/PerchloratenotesV2.pdf

[taiwanluthiers]

Much of Swede's blog has tests of chlorate impurity in perchlorate sample, but it should be fairly pure if you bought it from a supplier. One test is try to make a blue star... if it has sodium impurity, even a small amount, it will wash out. By the way conc. sulfuric acid will always attack sugar and turn it into carbon.