Secong Nature
November 11th, 2007, 08:30 AM
As you are all aware I am a newbie who is posting a new topic and already feel as if I am skating on thin ice but I feel that some of you will find this interesting.
Tonight I decided to test various kinds of sugar fuel, not that it really matters, just giving information.
So I decided to heat a very crystaline batch of KNO3 crystals in a glass which I had previously used to make a failed fuse (soaking string in a super saturated solution of KNO3).
To get all the crystals out of the glass I had to dissolve them in a large amount of water (over two litres is my guess) and then decided to boil it down in a steel pot; I then went to watch TV in the adjacent room.
After the water level went down about 5mL I began to smell a halogenic smell and went over too see the solution slightly simmering but reeking of something similar to bromine.
I then turned the heat off and left it there for a few hours, coming back it still smelled strange so I decided to leave it and continue next morning.
I'm currently in a state of a weeks worth of sleep deprivation and poured myself a gin and tonic with a bit too much gin so am not in a great mental state at the moment.
For information the KNO3 in the glass should be aroud 100g (by guessing) which was dissolved in a cup of water and left to crystalise by the water evaporating by itself.
This formed two crystal layers; the bottom one being about as coarse as sugar while the top one had monoclinic crystals between 1-2cm.
The pot which I had boiled the solution in had recently been used to make two 100g batches of sugar fuel, using a dextrose/KNO3 mix and then a sucrose/KNO3 mix, both in a 35:65 ratio.
My main theory is that the smell was a slight amount of NOx forming from decompostion, I have mistaken this smell for chlorine before.
I do not believe contamination to be the cause as the stuff I buy is, if not pure then very close to it.
I will take measurements in the morning if it has not been touched when I awaken arount midday so that additional and precise information can be gathered.
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Ok tommorow afternoon has arrived and the only information that I can get is that it weighs 1465g and has about the same amount in mLs, meaning that it weights as much as water.
Kitchenware was used so measure this so accuracy may not be very exact.
It still smells like halogen gas.
I cant test pH because I have no method of doing it, is there anything that will form a precipitate in acid/alkaline conditions?
Also what concentration in the air does NOx gas get to before it can be seen?
Because if my decomposition theory is true and no brown fumes where seen then a very little amount must have been present.
Tonight I decided to test various kinds of sugar fuel, not that it really matters, just giving information.
So I decided to heat a very crystaline batch of KNO3 crystals in a glass which I had previously used to make a failed fuse (soaking string in a super saturated solution of KNO3).
To get all the crystals out of the glass I had to dissolve them in a large amount of water (over two litres is my guess) and then decided to boil it down in a steel pot; I then went to watch TV in the adjacent room.
After the water level went down about 5mL I began to smell a halogenic smell and went over too see the solution slightly simmering but reeking of something similar to bromine.
I then turned the heat off and left it there for a few hours, coming back it still smelled strange so I decided to leave it and continue next morning.
I'm currently in a state of a weeks worth of sleep deprivation and poured myself a gin and tonic with a bit too much gin so am not in a great mental state at the moment.
For information the KNO3 in the glass should be aroud 100g (by guessing) which was dissolved in a cup of water and left to crystalise by the water evaporating by itself.
This formed two crystal layers; the bottom one being about as coarse as sugar while the top one had monoclinic crystals between 1-2cm.
The pot which I had boiled the solution in had recently been used to make two 100g batches of sugar fuel, using a dextrose/KNO3 mix and then a sucrose/KNO3 mix, both in a 35:65 ratio.
My main theory is that the smell was a slight amount of NOx forming from decompostion, I have mistaken this smell for chlorine before.
I do not believe contamination to be the cause as the stuff I buy is, if not pure then very close to it.
I will take measurements in the morning if it has not been touched when I awaken arount midday so that additional and precise information can be gathered.
------------------------------------------
Ok tommorow afternoon has arrived and the only information that I can get is that it weighs 1465g and has about the same amount in mLs, meaning that it weights as much as water.
Kitchenware was used so measure this so accuracy may not be very exact.
It still smells like halogen gas.
I cant test pH because I have no method of doing it, is there anything that will form a precipitate in acid/alkaline conditions?
Also what concentration in the air does NOx gas get to before it can be seen?
Because if my decomposition theory is true and no brown fumes where seen then a very little amount must have been present.