Update: Even More Confused
Updating this post, one has to ask a few questions. The two men stopped in South Carolina who had "pipe bombs" in their car have a bit of explaining to do. For instance: what exactly were they doing with a can of gasoline, PVC pipe, four hobby store brand rocket launchers, hobby store brand fuses, potassium chlorate and sugar in the trunk of their car? The last two items, when combined with sulphuric acid makes what is called "instant fire".
This is not a harmless substance. (DO watch the video.)
Potassium chlorate, KClO3, is a white, crystalline or powdery solid which is a very good oxidizing agent; it is used in explosives, fireworks, matches, etc. When it decomposes under heating (especially in the presence of a manganese catalyst), it releases molecular oxygen, O2:
2KClO3(s) —heat—> 2KCl(s) + 3O2(g)
Sugar is, of course, extremely easy to oxidize, and is a good source of energy, as you know if you've ever eaten a candy bar.
When potassium chlorate and ordinary table sugar are combined, and a drop of sulfuric acid is added as a catalyst, the two react violently with each other, releasing large quantities of heat energy, a spectacular purplish flame, and a great deal of smoke. (The purple hue of the flame is presumably due to the heating of the potassium.)
Amateur rocketry? Really? How many of you reading this have had all of those things in the trunk of your car? Something stinks out loud about all of this.
UPDATE: Um, well, from the comments it seems there are several people who have, in fact, had these things in their cars for model rocketry purposes. I had no idea these were as popular as they appear to be as rocket fuel.
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Blue Crab Boulevard » And Still More Confused — Wednesday, 8 August , 2007 @ 12:29 pm
By Jack, Tuesday, 7 August , 2007 @ 7:08 am
Well, when I was a kid in the Deep South we used to mix these items together to make what we called a “wet possum stick.”
But yeah, that stank too.
By Quilly Mammoth, Tuesday, 7 August , 2007 @ 9:52 am
::Quilly waves hand::
Me.
PVC pipe is the preferred casing for “sugar motors”. Of course, I like to make the occasional motor using Potassium Chlorate and Asphalt.
But that’s just me.
For the record I usually use Ammonium Perchlorate composite propellant or Nitrous Oxide and PVC. However, last year I did make some motors using the above material for a research project for the _1632 Universe_. The people of Grantville could make more powerful propellants than Black Powder to fight Richelieu…but I digress.
I can make PC using a handful of wood ash, salt water and a car battery. And make an excellent substitute for fulminate of Mercury for caps.
The point here is not what they carried but rather what their intentions were. For better or worse Islam now has a rap that won’t soon go away. They could quite plausibly be rocket makers….but change a few things around and they become bomb makers. There’s an awful lot of really nasty things that can be made using common household chemicals. Particularly if one thinks he will get 72 raisins upon his glorious death.
QM
By crosspatch, Tuesday, 7 August , 2007 @ 12:06 pm
PVC cased rocket motors look exactly like a pipe bomb and it is easy to see why a law enforcement officer with no experience in homebrew rocketry would think they are rocket motors. Or they could have been spark “shower” fireworks, as the kids say they are. Hey, they are engineering students. Engineers sometimes play with dangerous toys … even Muslim engineers.
Click on the picture to the left on this page to see how these rocket motors resemble pipe bombs.
By crosspatch, Tuesday, 7 August , 2007 @ 12:13 pm
Another typical use that also looks like a “pipe bomb”.
By guy, Tuesday, 7 August , 2007 @ 2:11 pm
I’m going to have to raise my hand here as well.
My friend and I make Potassium Nitrate/Sucrose PVC motors. This site has tons of good info on rocketry.
By Quilly Mammoth, Tuesday, 7 August , 2007 @ 2:47 pm
A note of safety.
Nakka’s site refers to Potassium Nitrate based propellants. The use of Potassium Chlorate makes several of his designs dangerous. Particularly the use of metal in the nozzle. Potassium Chlorate does not like to be around the metal salts invariably produced by metal washers. See note above about the effect of a small amount of acid on a sugar/potassium chlorate mixture.
Additionally, the designs call for Sorbitol. The use of sugar may cause CATOS induced by plugged nozzles.
Be careful out there.