Gargamel
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Registered: 9-3-2013
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Understanding the critical relative humidity of common nitrates - wet storage
Hi there!
maybe you can help me a little with you're expertise.
I wonder how certein nitrates - mostly the standart pyro chemicals - will react when stored obove their critical relative humidity.
Does that mean that liquids are formed in any case?
Let me explain the reason for my question.
I'm in pyro now for several years. The greatest hobby I ever had.
Unfortunately I live in an extremely paranoid and amateur science hating country where there is NO way to get legal.
As you can imagine Oxidizers are extremely hard to get.
As you also can imagine, it makes a very bad impression in case of ANY trouble to have your stocks at home. Let alone the fire hazard. It would be a
crime anyway.
It may sound stupid/kewl guerilla stylish, but the best and safest location I found is to use such things here:
http://www.curtec.com/en/products/drums/wide-neck-drums
and just bury them at a safe place. I found no better solution - please do not discuss the method, rather if it's feasable!
Now these drums are considered waterproof, and they are.
There WILL be some water inleakage over time. The seals are very good, but diffusion through the plastic will play a role.
The nitrates will bind it.
Do you think the time constant of such a system will be long enough to prevent the formation of liquids in projected storage time of, say 5-10 years?
I dont care if they get wet, they have to be dryed before use anyway.
The main problem what it's all about is, if I can store more than one nitrate in the drum (each carefully packed in triple ore more ziplock bags)
without them eventually mixing!
Barium nitrate contaminated with even a few percent strontium nitrate is pretty much ruined.
[Edited on 9-3-2013 by Gargamel]
[Edited on 9-3-2013 by Gargamel]
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Metacelsus
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Registered: 26-12-2012
Location: Boston, MA
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Assuming the barrels are watertight, and no liquid water will leak in (vapor is another matter), you should be good. The only nitrates I'd be worried
about are magnesium nitrate and ammonium nitrate, which are more hygroscopic. I've stored sodium nitrate in a single ziploc bag in my humid basement
for a few months, and, while it absorbed some moisture, it most definitely did not liquefy.
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Mixell
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Using triple good zip-lock bags should do the trick and prevent water from getting in, but better make sure that the barrel is water proof and
corrosion resistant for long periods. Having a puddle at the bottom of it may even overcome the zip-locked bags.
@Cheddie, the sodium nitrate shouldn't liquefy in the first place, it's not deliquescent.
Just out of curiosity, from which pyro-unfriendly country are you?
[Edited on 10-3-2013 by Mixell]
[Edited on 10-3-2013 by Mixell]
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Gargamel
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That is indeed my first testrun, since it's worse than the other stuff. Also the one that will cause the most freakout reaction when found in these
times.
The barrels are HDPE and the seal is some rubber. I don't think they will degrade. Relatively constant temperature and no sunlight.
And the company explicitly states they are
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water vapour tight |
I mean, nothing is really "water vapour tight", I'm aware of that. The questions simply is how much will enter the drum. And that's hard to predict.
If that amount is small enough it wont matter.
Meanwhile I concluded it will be better not to mix different stuff in one barrel.
Do you think there are kinds of funghi that can survive in a nitrate only environment?
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Just out of curiosity, from which pyro-unfriendly country are you? |
Germany.
It's not just pyro, in fact they don't even like "normal" home chemistry at all. Ordering even small amounts of metal powders, potassium permanganate
or simply standard acids lead to large scaled police raids all around the country.
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