DeadHead
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Granular Ferric Oxide: Phosphate aborber turned thermite?
In my reef keeping, i use a substance, GFO as a phosphate absorber. Over time it becomes saturated with phosphates and I replace it. There are
guides for stripping it so it can be reused, but I had an idea that perhaps I could just use it to make simple thermite.
If I were to use the "used" GFO would the absorbed phosphates affect the reaction?
Would any residual salt? and its far from just NaCl...
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12AX7
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Are you wanting to make something hot and sparkly, or are you interested in the iron which the reaction produces? The phosphate will certainly be
reduced (which will require slightly more aluminum than usual), and the resulting phosphorus will partly burn off, partly dissolve in the iron
(forming iron phosphide, making it very brittle).
Residual salt should be soaked out, and the granules thoroughly dried (as in, calcined) to ensure no adsorbed or chemically combined moisture remains.
At a glance, it looks like GFO is ferric hydroxide powder, granularized, so it should contain chemically combined moisture. Ferric hydroxide thermite
tends to flash and explode, due to the gas and heat produced when steam is released and burns with the aluminum.
Tim
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blogfast25
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I wouldn't recommend using contaminated and water containing iron oxide for thermites. Better to strip and dry it and then test it. Or use 'virgin'
GFO, after mild calcining to drive off any water.
Anything that's volatile above 2000 C get's blown off and can cause all kinds of problems although it's not guaranteed either: potassium chlorate
boosted thermites blow off KCl vapour, yet run well-contained without problems or deflagration.
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DeadHead
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Right now I'm looking to make something sparkly and little else. Still have to get my hands on the powdered aluminum, seems common enough, but still
nervous.. seems like everything fun to do is on some watched list anymore. 
Perhaps ill do some kind of controlled experiment, with virgin gfo, used gfo, and "stripped" gfo as the variable.
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blogfast25
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Quote: Originally posted by DeadHead  | Right now I'm looking to make something sparkly and little else. Still have to get my hands on the powdered aluminum, seems common enough, but still
nervous.. seems like everything fun to do is on some watched list anymore.
Perhaps ill do some kind of controlled experiment, with virgin gfo, used gfo, and "stripped" gfo as the variable.
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You can test the used GFO as such, just make sure you stand back enough to avoid any nasty surprises... But using aluminothermy to merely produce
something sparkly seems such a waste of an interesting chemical reaction..
For all things sparkly and hot as hell, try calcium sulphate (no frills wall filler) plus aluminium powder:
CaSO4 + 8/3 Al == > CaS + 4/3 Al2O3
In excess of 3,000 C for a stoichiometric mixture!
[Edited on 21-5-2013 by blogfast25]
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ElectroWin
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| Quote: Originally posted by DeadHead | Right now I'm looking to make something sparkly and little else. Still have to get my hands on the powdered aluminum, seems common enough, but still
nervous.. seems like everything fun to do is on some watched list anymore.
Perhaps ill do some kind of controlled experiment, with virgin gfo, used gfo, and "stripped" gfo as the variable.
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if you worry about being watched, you could just go get a fireworks license?
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DeadHead
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I would like that very much but just scanning NY regulations about it made my head spin, and doesn't sound like something I can "just go get"...
Unless someone wants to mentor me and live near Rochester NY lol.
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Bot0nist
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Dont worry about ordering small amounts of even pyro aluminum. With small orders, they worry people are making illegal M-80 and such. just dont buy
tons, or buy it with KClO4 or a bunch of NH4NO3. If they kicked doors down over a pound or two of flash grade Al, then my door would have been off the
hinges by now. BTW, I dont even think dark pyro Al is needed for thermites and thermates. Just the cheaper and more common larger meshed powders.
U.T.F.S.E. and learn the joys of autodidacticism!
Don't judge each day only by the harvest you reap, but also by the seeds you sow.
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12AX7
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Once you get it going, you can sustain a thermite with rust flakes and aluminum turnings. You need pretty much a molten heel to get to that stage,
though. (Fe2O3 melts ca. 1500C and is soluble in molten Al2O3, and Al is soluble in molten Fe, so all components are happy to mingle as they react.)
Tim
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