Ammoniumperchlorate

[Macgyver]

I recently aquired some ammonium perchlorate, with the intention to use it for rocket fuel.

But since it seems to be *very* reactive with almost anything, I thought it'd be a good idea to ask here first if anyone has experience with such mixtures?

And is there anything else fun that it can be used for? (Obviously, since it's both a strong oxidizer and explosive in its own...).

[Blackhawk]

NH4ClO4 composite fuels can vary quite a bit, Usually around 70% Oxidiser, 20% plastic Binder >10% Al powder and assorted addatives such as CuO to increase burn rate (and give a cool blue flame). These mixtures usually burn increadibly slowly at 1atm if at all, and require pressures of around 500-1000psi to give an appreciable burn rate. Anyway, shop around and do some tests, but as I said don't be disheartened if your fuels won't burn (or arn't very promising) at atmospheric pressure.

Other than that you can make some TACP with it.

[Bert]

It makes nice blue or purple stars, particularly with Copper benzoate. With a sulfate as secondary oxidizer, it makes mag or magnalium strobe stars.

[scarletmanuka]

One thing that has always puzzled me about NH4ClO4 in rocket fuel is wether it decomposes to NH4Cl and O2
ie NH4ClO4 --> NH4Cl + O2 (the NH4Cl would probably decompose to NH3 and HCl)
or into N2 H2O HCl and O2
ie. 2NH4ClO4 -->2HCl + 3H2O + 2.5O2 + N2

Having never noticed an ammonia smell form NH4ClO4 I would say that the latter is more likely, however, in keeping in line with other p.chlorates, the former would make more sense. Although AN doesnt decompose like Metal nitrates.

[vulture]

A distinct property of oxidizing ammoniumsalts is that the ammonium ion will always be oxidized to N2 or N2O. The latter is only stable at low temperatures and not very favorable.

Note that when detonating NH4ClO4, free Cl2 will be formed:

2NH4ClO4 ---> Cl2 + 2O2 + N2 + 4H2O

[scarletmanuka]

Surely the reaction between Cl2 and H2O is exothermic to produce HCl gas right? Wouldn't that mean while detonating, the lowest energy products are formed being HCl and O2?

[vulture]

No, the reaction between Cl2 and H2O is endothermic.

Your reasoning is flawed. If it was exothermic, it wouldn't be formed during detonation, because high temperature favors endothermic reactions. ( Le chatelier)

But, because it's endothermic, some HCl will be formed during detonation, yes.

There are alot of hard to approximate equilibrium reactions in a detonation cloud.

For example, with carbon compounds the Badouard (sp?) equilibrium is one of them:

2CO --> C + CO2

Ofcourse high pressure is needed, since we're going from 2 moles of gas to 1 mole of gas.

[dogbone103]

I am a newby from Australia an i was just wonderig where i could buy ammonium perchlorate. Which shops could i get it from or is there anything i can buy that has ammonium perchlorate in it?
Thank you.

[Zeitgeist]

Chlorates and Perchlorates are among the harder to find OTC's here.

Search. Not just this forum

[Flake2m]

@ Dogbone103 I am not going to even bother answering that question. NH4ClO4 is a chemical fairly hard to get hold of because it is fairly reactive and the general public has little or no use for it.
As a n00b it would be a better idea for you to learn some basic chemistry and understand some basic principal before you even start handling and using chemcials such as NH4ClO4, which is quite reactive and can be dangerous if you don't have a clue.