Make potassium nitrate from lite salt and a cold pack. How to make potassium nitrate and sugar rocket fuel and a. How long after the pvc casings were packed did you attempt to light the engines. Hey guys heres a video of a sodium nitrate rocket that actually flys. The nitrate towns of chile tamarugal, chile atlas obscura. Most noncommercial rocket engines that im aware of are made of a mixture of potassium nitrate saltpeter and some form of sugar usually sucrose table sugar. Performance tests of knsu, whose composition is 65 wt% kno3 and 35 wt%. Ive seen lots of videos of people launching small to large rockets, usually made of pvc, and they use potassium nitrate kno3 as the fuel. Page 1 of 2 failing with potassium perchlorate as rocket propellant. This is because the potassium nitrate is providing its oxygens to the fuel that is the. What is a good rocket design and a good recipe for rocket fuel.
I had used saltpeter but could not find it anymore. All experiments with it as a propellant component failed. Besides potassium nitrate, other alkali metal nitrates also have been examined for their influence on phase modification 110, 120. Well, the availability of potassium nitrate varies upon location concerning legal matters, although it isnt your only option to make cheap, easy homemade rocket fuel. In liquid state it has nearly a viscosity like water, so the propellant is highly castable in according molds and can be feed through fuel pumps.
Reevaluation of sodium nitrate e 251 and potassium. I assume this is due to the sodium atom being a bit lighter than the potassium atom, thus less nano3 by weight is needed to oxidize a given amount of fuel. Although the propellant and procedures in this book are very safe you still must. Potassium nitrate mixed with a liquid fuel is one thing, and one thing only. I know that an has been successfully used in large rockets one used magnesium powder as fuel. Potassium and sodium chlorate can be made easily in the home, by boiling bleach and filtering for sodium chlorate and letting the filtered solution to dry, or before the solution dries. In order for your rocket fuel to burn properly, its important that your dry ingredients be wellsifted.
The reaction of sugar and nitrate makes heat, and the heat excites the metal filings, causing them to be oxidized and emit light. Homemade rocket fuel without kno3 applied chemistry. I would like to start a project for the construction of rockets as a project for high school students. Studying the reaction between sucrose and potassium. The result is a slurry of solid oxidizer particles suspended in liquid sucrose medium.
In respect to the ignition of potassium nitrate with sucrose, we built and tested a type of relatively safe rocket fuel consisting of potassium nitrate kno3 and sucrose c12h22o11 with varying ratios of the two main proponents of the propellant the fuel and the oxidizer. Using sodium and potassium nitrate in the same sugar rocket self. I know you have to use powdered sugar in there somewhere. This web page describes the classic sugarbased rocket propellant comprised of a fused mixture of potassium nitrate serving as the oxidizer, and sucrose table sugar serving as the fuel and binder. An oxidizer such as potassium nitrate is perhaps the most readily available, sold.
The potassium nitrate, which has a much higher melting point, remains as solid particles that partly dissolve in the sucrose. While kno 3 is reported to stabilize phase iii, cesium nitrate is found to stabilize phase ii. What is the safest laboratory procedure to make solid rocket fuel. I used this for solid state rocket fuel rcandy and gunpowder. The eutectic rocket propellant can be used in solid and in liquid state. Hello, in the past, ive utiliized kno3 as the primary oxidizer. Recently i got my hands on some potassium perchlorate and somhow happened that it is the only oxidizer i have at the moment.
A mixture of sugar and potassium nitrate is a good rocket fuel as it represents the reaction of solids nitrate and sugar to form gases carbon dioxide and water. How to make a rocket using potassium nitrate, or kno3, as. A mixture of sodium acetate and potassium nitrate may cause an explosion pieters 1957. In this project, youll combine granulated sugar and potassium nitrate to make a powerful engine that can. The primary advantages of molten nitrate salt as the heat transfer fluid for a solar power tower plant include a lower operating pressure and better heat transfer and thus higher allowable incident flux than a water. Or better yet, suppose one were to build an experimental solidliquid rocket motor that used molten sodium metal with liquid oxygen. Did you follow the procedure for drying the kno3 before you packed it into the casing. Sodium is abundant, has a melting point close to the boiling point of water 208 degrees fahrenheit. New potassium nitrate and rocket festival see more. Major uses of potassium nitrate are in fertilizers, tree stump removal, rocket propellants and fireworks. Potassium nitrate is used as a fertilizer, to help plants grow faster and grow in more places where it might be hard for them to. Strontium nitrate and barium nitrate, the fuel in fireworks how do they get the brilliant sparks of red, white and blue in fireworks displays. The aqueous solution is almost neutral, exhibiting ph 6. Read book potassium nitrate solution msds potassium nitrate solution msds synthesis of potassium nitrate here i create potassium nitrate by a simple double replacement reaction involving ammonium nitrate and potassium chloride.
If you are looking for potassium nitrate at a cheap cost with great results, look no further. The potassium nitrate kno3sucrose c12h22o11 propellant, known as knsu, is. How to make hobby rocket sugar motors using sugar and kitty litter, that. Potassium nitrate was once thought to induce impotence, and is still rumored to be in institutional food such as military fare as an anaphrodisiac. Particular problem i want to address is pulsation that occurs in the rocket, it extinguishes the.
Ive tried using sugar as a fuel, but rarely had any success setting it off. Reevaluation of sodium nitrate e 251 and potassium nitrate e 252 as food additives lingua undefined the panel on food additives and nutrient sources added to food ans provided a scientific opinion reevaluating the safety of sodium nitrate e 251 and potassium nitrate e. For interest the fuel is by weight 30 parts potassium nitrate to 11 parts icing sugar to 4 parts sulphur all very fine powder as all ingredients are soluble in water except for sulphur, water is used as a binder. Can molten potassium nitrate be used as oxidizing fuel in. This propellant is usually refered to by the acronym knsu. This method involves melting a mixture of sugary fuel and chemical oxidizer the potassium nitrate over an electric hot plate and then pouring. Homemade rocket fuel choices nasa spaceflight forum. Failing with potassium perchlorate as rocket propellant. With my other ingredients it make plants greener and healthier looking. Following on from this, you need less oxidiser and can fit more fuel per unit of rocket mix. Sodium nitrate propellant made with the sugar syrup method. Mix it in the uk, youre breaking several laws before you even light the fuse. For example, it reacts readily with sugar, acids and.
This was followed in 2004 by his book amateur rocket motor. Material safety date sheet sodium potassium nitrate section 1identification of the substancepreparationcompany product name. Mix potassium nitrate with sugar to make a homemade smoke bomb. Potassium permagrate wouldnt work well in rocket fuel, and isnt very easy to obtain or synthesize, however both are possible. Rocket candy, or rcandy, is a type of rocket propellant for model rockets made with sugar as. Mix the potassium nitrate and sugar together in a separate container. The combustion of potassiumsodium nitrate and sorbitol forms carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen and potassiumsodium carbonate. I can currently only gain access to nano3 and i was wondering if anyone had expereince using that in rocket forumulations as the primary oxidizer. Potassium nitrate and sugar are both easily obtainable and inexpensive in most parts of the world. Using sodium and potassium nitrate in the same sugar rocket.
Coat paper with a mixture of potassium nitrate and water, let it dry, and apply a match to write a message using fire. There are certainly countless solid propellant formulations that have been tried by. Sugar rockets are the slowest burning of all rocket fuels, and its. Im sort of a model rocket enthusiast, but the most common fuel for model rockets, rocket candy, requires potassium nitrate as an oxidizer to oxidize powdered sugar. Like its cousin, potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate could be used both as a fertilizer, and as a explosive, or rocket fuel. There are other nitrate salts, such as sodium nitrate and ammonium nitrate. I use a 60% potassium nitrate mix with 40% sugar, no additives. It seems the mixture drowns under the water produced when the nitrate decomposes. How to make rocket motors with potassium nitrate and sugar. Potassium nitrate is not necessarily expensive, but its not very common, and the only process i found to make it at home took almost a year to produce product.
Whether this additional power will be realized, or if it. This fuel mixture is much less ignitable than chlorate based mixtures. Potassium nitrate simple english wikipedia, the free. Burning rate measurement of knsu propellant obtained. I first became aware of the potassium nitratesorbitol knsb rocket propellant in 1996, when i learned that it was being used as a replacement for the knsucrose knsu propellant by some european rocketry organizations. Tamir hasan potassium nitrate based rocket propulsion. The harmful effects of sodium nitrite in food healthy. Potassium nitrate is a key ingredient in a homemade storm glass, which produces crystals in response to atmospheric conditions. One of the most efficient nitratebased propellants is a mixture of potassium nitrate and sugar, commonly referred to as rocket candy. A mixture of sugar and potassium nitrate is a good rocket fuel as it represents. I used this product that goes in a recipe to make fertilizer for my plants. Potassium nitrate as a oxidizer in liquid fuel rocket. From my understanding, its harder to work with as it is hard to keep dry and is less powerful than kno3 based formulations.
While its easy to make a sugar rocket, its also very dangerous, so use caution throughout your project. A rocket festival translit, translit is a meritmaking ceremony traditionally practiced by ethnic lao people throughout much of isan and laos, in numerous villages and municipalities near the beginning of the wet season. The fuel also adhered better to the pvc casing if you did a quick priming of the pvc with solvent right before pouring the fuel in. Potassium nitrate is an oxidising salt, a nitrate salt to be more specific. Sodium is a lot lighter than potassium, so sodium nitrate will have a higher oxygen content. Due to extreme temperature difference there might need to be an igniter to get the combustion started.
Potassium nitrate is also used in rocket fuel for the same reason as in explosives, except that the goal is to let the fuel burn longer, not faster. The most common oxidizer is potassium nitrate kno3. It is one of the major constituents of gunpowder black powder. It burned very well and made for several great experiments. It was potassium nitrate which i looked up on amazon and found what i needed.
It is also the principal reaction in sugar rocket fuel. Liquids are desirable because their reasonably high density allows the volume of the propellant tanks to be relatively low, and it is possible to use lightweight centrifugal turbo pumps to pump the propel. A mixture of potassium nitrate and sodium hypophosphite constitute a powerful explosive mellor 8. In this project, youll combine two commonly available substances granulated sugar and potassium nitrate to make a powerful engine that can propel a small sugar rocket to impressive heights. Stump remover is pretty much pure potassium nitrate. A sugar rocket is a simple home project that uses potassium nitrate kno3 and powdered sugar as fuel. Excessive intake of sodium nitrite has been linked to diseases such as nonhodgkin lymphoma, leukemia and esophageal, pancreatic, bladder and thyroid cancer, according to healthy child, healthy world. Although sodium nitrite is largely unavoidable in the environment, exposure can be minimized to prevent harmful levels. A mixture of powdered zirconium and potassium nitrate explodes when heated above the melting point mellor 7. Theres not much difference between a nitratebased fuel that can power a rocket and one that will detonate and blow shrapnel in all directions. You are building a solid rocket motor, not a liquid fuel. As an oxidizer in model rocket fuel called rocket candy. Potassium nitrate is one of several nitrogencontaining compounds collectively referred to as saltpeter or saltpetre. The kno3 came finely ground, similar to sugar, maybe a little finer but not by much.
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