Faal
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Snap Powder
New member, first thread, go easy, please. When I was a small child I loved science (my father's an industrial chemist) and I slowly lsot interest as
I Went through school...
Finally finding sources to get back to basics and learn to have some fun with science.
Got a few questions buzzing around in my head, but the first one is simple (I hope)
Fun little compound called snap powder (cannot remember chemical name at this time, if nobody knows what it is, I'll look it up though) The only
process I have found to make it involves chemicals that eitehr take weeks to distill or have to be purchased through special sources.
Anyone have an easy process to make this? Preferably one that somone who's not too adept at chemistry (yet! I do know a lot of basics though) can
handle?
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Xenoid
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I guess you mean the so called nitrogen triiodide!
You'll need iodine and ammonia!
Search this forum, I'm sure you will find plenty of references!
Xenoid
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12AX7
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Lot of things do that... mercury and silver fulminate, silver and lead azides I think, NI3, etc. NI3 is distinctive in leaving iodine stains
everywhere it touches. Mixtures also do this; look up Armstrong's mixture: the same chemical reaction which lights matches.
The naughty thing about these chemicals and reactions is, they're all well and good fun with a little dusted around, but when you go to make some, you
have all that explosive power concentrated in your synthesis, be it some powder on a paper or a precipitate suspended in a beaker. These are all
extremely sensitive primary high explosives and exceedingly dangerous to work with in any quantity.
Welcome to the SMDB.
Tim
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Faal
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I was under the impression that it was less dangerous than Flash powder (another fun compound I hope to make eventually) that it exploded easily but
with very little force...?
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Ozone
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| Quote: | | that it exploded easily but with very little force...? |
More like "very little quantity". A few grams of any of these things (explosives that will easily go off with light, friction, heat are known as
primary explosives) will ruin your weekend if it decides to go off in your face.
take care,
O3
-Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
--Albert Einstein
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woelen
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Faal
I was under the impression that it was less dangerous than Flash powder (another fun compound I hope to make eventually) that it exploded easily but
with very little force...? |
These are more dangerous than a well-made flash powder. A compound like NI3 can explode for no apparent reason. If you have 1 gram of this material
and it explodes all at once, then it may cost you one or more fingers, or more. This is not the stuff to start with when you are new to chemistry. The
same is true for all those other explosive compounds, mentioned in this thread.
First I want to tell you that chemistry is more than bangs and flashes. Go and look around over here, many other wonderful things are done. But if you
really want something 'pyrotechnic', then start with plain black powder. The chemicals for that are relatively easy to obtain, and this powder does
not simply set off when you are looking bad at it. From this starting point, you can continue doing other things, such as adding metal powders, adding
color. In the meantime other parts of chemistry also may have risen your interest.
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Faal
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lol, to reasure, I am not just a loonatic looking to blow stuff up. Though as we all know the most interesting part of chemestry deals with quick and
obvious effects. I have several common (and uncommon) feats I wish to perform, and acctually very few involve explosions.
I didn't realize that snap powder was one of those compounds that would explode just for the sheer heck of it. I thought it was fairly stable provided
no force or friction was involved.
I will look into the alternatives listed, as I said I'm just now getting back interested in this after close to 15 years, so I'm more than a little
"out of hte loop". Thank you all!
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woelen
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Faal, good to read about this. With my post I absolutely did not want to place you in the group of irresponsible idiots who just go for the big bang,
quick and fast. I'm making this kind of remarks more as a warning and to emphasize on other interesting aspects of chemistry also. But I agree with
you, fast and strong changes of course are the nicest things there are and these can involve explosions, fire, smoke, but also color changes,
bubbling, colored gases, and many more interesting things.
A reasonably safe alternative for NI3, which also is quite impressive is the following:
http://woelen.scheikunde.net/science/chem/exps/silveracetyli...
This also makes impressive bangs.
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Jdurg
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I think the powder he may have been referring to is indeed silver acetylide. If my memory serves me right, that is the compound used in little things
called 'whipper-snappers' which were tiny little paper sacs with gravel and silver acetylide in there. If you threw this "sack" at the ground it
would snap and give off a tiny puff of smoke. The primary explosive used in there is quite obviously stable enough to handle packaging and shipping,
but the impact created with the pieces of gravel and anything hard made it go off. Neat little toys that you can still find in certain old-fashioned
toy stores. I just can't recall if it's silver fulminate or silver acetylide that is the active compound.
\"A real fart is beefy, has a density greater than or equal to the air surrounding it, consists of the unmistakable scent of broccoli, and usually
requires wiping afterwards.\"
http://maddox.xmission.com. |
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woelen
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The active compound is silver fuilminate. Silver acetylide is not sufficiently shock sensitive, the latter, however, is very heat-sensitive.
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