Sciencemadness Discussion Board

OTC Potassium Chlorate

Hexavalent - 16-6-2012 at 09:06

Just a tip off as to a great source of potassium chlorate in the UK - it is sold as 'oxygenating tablets' in 'Pets at Home' and only costs a few pounds. The assay says '98% potassium chlorate', and I bet, as the thing comes in small pills, the other 2% is a binder of some kind. You can buy it freely, no questions asked. I have bought some and it seems to work very well for all the popular reactions, e.g. with sucrose.

Here is the product itself;

http://www.petsathome.com/shop/oxygenating-tablets-x-25-by-s...

[Edited on 16-6-2012 by Hexavalent]

MR AZIDE - 16-6-2012 at 11:03

Nice find......But Ive never heard of this store untill you mentioned it. Once those pills have been ground up, it'll look not bad for £1.79.

I think a LOT of OTC chemicals, which are sold to the public as some benign looking product without the non-science enthusiast knowing the significance of the ingredients.......is very much dependent on the luck of where you live.

KNO3, NaNO3, KCO3, FeSO4, CuSO4, NH4NO3, are all available at garden centres as fertilizers etc.........but No where near me has any of this as OTC.


Edit.. Just discovered that this can be bought in bulk, 275 tablets for under £18 from Argos!!....:o

There is only one store, and its a small independent one, that was taken over by Home Hardware, (that sells Conc HCL for example, ) is the only place I can get Methylated Spirits!!!

IS there any consumer product in the UK that has conc, or at least a decent amount of H2SO4 in it???

[Edited on 16-6-2012 by MR AZIDE]

Hexavalent - 16-6-2012 at 11:10

There are loads of drain unblockers that contain up to 98% sulfuric acid (albeit with a faint dye in it, to stop people mistaking it for water!) that is satisfactory for experiments...look around in local hardware stores.

Methylated spirits is usually carried very cheaply by camping or hardware stores, and HCl is sold as concrete etchant or 'spirits of salt'.

Where exactly in the UK do you live? U2U me if you want.

MR AZIDE - 16-6-2012 at 11:15


You did U2U me in the past about my location, it may still be in your In box.

Iv known about the Spirits of salt.......made some nice NH4Cl with it....pure white fluffy crystals.
Also made some pure white NH4NO3 as well, so will be trying the negative 'X' reaction...... So the OTC stuff seems pretty pure.

I got some meths yesterday, but the most obvious hardware stores you would have expected to sell it dont.....

link http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/079560.htm



[Edited on 16-6-2012 by MR AZIDE]

mineralman - 17-6-2012 at 06:48

Be aware that they have started adding amino acids to some OTC drain cleaners and various products now, try and find an old fashioned iron mungers or privately owened hardware shop.
Farm stores also offer some great stuff, but they seem to be dwindeling in numbers as there taken over by big companys. Thats why I allways shop localy and support any small buisness I can, all we need to do now is legalise drugs, make them available through hospitals and tax them. Then maybe the meth cooks will stop fucking up the availability of even the simplist chemical. apollogies for ranting MM

vmelkon - 18-6-2012 at 13:17

Quote: Originally posted by Hexavalent  
Just a tip off as to a great source of potassium chlorate in the UK<snip>
Here is the product itself;

http://www.petsathome.com/shop/oxygenating-tablets-x-25-by-s...

[Edited on 16-6-2012 by Hexavalent]


It says £1.56 for 19 g. Looks expensive.
How about this method from NurdRage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtxQT7aVDeg
It is probably the cheapest way.

Or this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&...
he is using a "platinum clad niobium screen anode" but you can use graphite. It just adds an extra step of getting the KClO3 back into solution and filter the graphite dust, then dry.