DukerX

I live in this rockpile of a country called Norway. Here, everything out of the ordinary toothpaste, milk and sugar is surprisingly hard to get hold of, unless you have "connections". If I'm at all able to find a local pottery supplier, it's doubtfull anything they have would come across as "cheap". Anyhow... I'll look into it. Maybe I'm up for a surprise...

The heating of KNO3/sugar mixes is something one shouldn't take lightly, as it is a high-energy propellant. Never use open flame to heat this stuff Use a hot-plate and preferably an oil bath to act as a thermal buffer Don't make big batches, as it's harder to heat it evenly, resulting in even higher risk of ignition. Hand rolled printer-paper tubes could be used for very small rockets, but if you plan to make 1/4"ID or bigger, you should consider using heavy virgin craft paper, or using premade tubes. The reason for using stronger tubes is that the pressure developed inside even a moderate size rocket engine is ... significant. It have already been mentioned earlier that there are quite a big comunity on the net dedicated to model rockets / amateur rocketry, wich have loads of information on this subject, including the dagers involved. The reason for this reply? To make people who just read the tread aware of the danger involved in making this kind of fuel, as it has been somewhat neglected in earlier posts.

What does the (I), (II) and (III) mean when you talk about CuO? I noticed this remark about making "nice copper (II) compounds" How "nice" would these be, and could it be done whit KNO3 instead of Na2SO4, as I have no idea of where to even start looking for Na2SO4, but I have LOADS of KNO3. Another thing that puzzles me is how to separate the CuO from the Na2SO4 or perhaps KNO3 when I'm "done"... I was searching for "Na2SO4" in my native language and found some crude scool-reports on electrolysis of Na2SO4 using carbon electrodes. It was said that after a while, the solution got a higher pH (alkaline??). Would I have to counter this whit more H2SO4, or would the increase in pH be insignificant? It would be great to be able to make alot (hundreds of grams) of uncontaminated "Copper(II) Oxide" as I need it in some of my other "chemistry" experiments.

I was under the assumption that hte color observed in combustion of carbon based fuels are due to soot particles inside the flame being heated to a red-hot temperature and thus radiating the heat energy in the visible spectrum. Also, I think for normal "air" to glow or radiate in the visible spectrum, it had to be ionized. -DX-

I'm doing various experiments whit electrolysis, and as I don't have graphite electrodes, the metal in my electrodes goes into the reaction. At least that's what I think. I've tried Fe, Cu and Al electrodes. I started using NaCl dissolved in wather, and got that eerie Cl smell during the process. Then, I ran out of NaCl, and decided to try something else. I have a 25lbs bag of KNO3 sitting in the basement, and I went down there and grabbed a cup of the stuff, and dissolved it in hot wather. As you might know... When it was dissolved, the water wsn't very hot anymore... Anyhow... KNO3 seems to work about the same as NaCl, only it doesn't give of any Cl smell. I saw somewhere that electrolysis of KNO3 would not break up the KNO3 at all, but rather break up the H2O. When looking at it from a "pure" electrolysis perspective, the result should be H2 and O2 gas, wich bubbles from the electrodes. When using metallic electrodes, the electrodes are eroded, and goes into solution as "gunk". Fe electrodes = Brown gunk (Rust, I think) Cu electrodes = Green/black gunk (CuO ??) Al electrodes = White/gray gunk (Al2O3 ????) What I'm curious about is two things: Are my assumptions correct regarding the "gunk" or does the KNO3 plays trics on me, forming weird potassium compounds or nitrates or other weirdness, or does the KNO3 stay intact? Are my gunk "pure" metal oxides, and if they are; How can I extract it from the KNO3 solution? The gunk is heavier then the solution, so it settles in the lower third of my container, so I guess I could decant it and put back clean wather over and over again for like... a month, but that's not very practical. Please speak your mind, cause I'm almost clueless about what I'm doing here -DX-