I remember seeing a post a while back where some user showed a video where ammonium nitrate analytically decomposed and asked what was the catalyst.
After some test and research, I found that a mixture of potassium ferrocyanide and potassium dichromate will catalyze ammonium dichromate
decomposition. A pinch of the two salts mixed with 10 g of ammonium nitrate make a suitable mixture. The ammonium nitrate is fairly easy to ligth and
will burn ferously leaving a green glass. It will make a lot of fumes that readily disperse, maybe because they are mostly water vapors.
A very impressive demonstration. If mixed with carbon, as in the original ammonpulver black powder, it may be possible to attain much faster burning
rate then what we observe when testing the original 85 ammonium nitrate 15 carbon ratio. |