How to Make Violet Flames

HOW TO MAKE VIOLET FLAMES

Violet flames are very easy to make. All you do is sprinkle salt substitute on your fire. Salt substitute contains potassium chloride and potassium bitartrate. If you are familiar with the emission spectra from flame tests, you'll recognize that potassium salts burn violet or purple. To me, the color seems more of a blue-violet, but you can get a more reddish purple if you mix a little strontium from the red fire tutorial in with the salt substitute.

Keep in mind, violet is not one of the colors your eyes see really well. The subtle glow of these flames can be completely overwhelmed by the colors from trace impurities. This means two things:

1. Use as pure a fuel as you can. I used Heet™ fuel treatment, which is methanol. If you sprinkle the salt substitute on your wood-burning campfire, the flames will change color but the color won't necessarily be violet. 2. Use salt substitute and not lite salt. Lite salt is a mixture of normal table salt (sodium chloride) with potassium salts. The yellow from the sodium will overpower the violet from the potassium. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5-kh-oy7YQ HOW TO MAKE GREEN FLAMES It's easy to make brilliant green fire. This cool chemistry project requires only two household chemicals.

Green Fire Materials  Boric Acid

Medical grade boric acid can be found in the pharmacy sections of some stores for use as a disinfectant. It is a white powder. It's not the same chemical as borax. I used Enoz Roach Away™, which is 99% boric acid, sold with household insecticides.

 Heet™ Gas Line Antifreeze and Water Remover  Heet™ is sold with automotive chemicals.  Metal or Stoneware Container  Lighter

Instructions for Making Green Fire 1. Pour some Heet™ into the container. How much you use will determine how long your fire will burn. I used about a half cup of Heet™ for approximately 10 minutes of fire. 2. Sprinkle some boric acid into the liquid and swirl it around to mix it up. I used 1-2 teaspoons of powder. It won't all dissolve, so don't worry about some powder at the bottom of the container. 3. Set the container on a heat-safe surface and ignite it with a lighter.

Video on making a green fire: http://video.about.com/chemistry/Green-Fire.htm

Green Fire Tips & Safety Information  Boric acid is a relatively safe household chemical. You can rinse the residue remaining in the container down the drain.

 This is an outdoor project. There isn't a lot of smoke produced, nor is it particularly toxic, but the heat is intense. It will set off your smoke alarm

 Be sure to set your container on a heat-safe surface. Do not follow my extremely bad example and set it on your glass patio table. Similarly, don't use any container that might shatter dangerously. Use metal or possibly stoneware, not glass, wood, or plastic.

 Heet™ primarily is methanol (methyl alcohol). You could try this project with other types of alcohol. Possibilities include ethanol, such as vodka or Everclear, or isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol). You might also try other common household metal salts for different flame colors.

 For example, I susbstituted rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) for the Heet™. The result was a fire that alternated from orange to blue to green. It wasn't as spectacular as the Heet™ fire, but it was still pretty cool.

 The green fire could be used as a stunning Halloween decoration in a cauldron or possibly inside a jack-o- lantern.

 Keep the chemicals for this project out of reach of children or pets, since methanol is harmful if swallowed. Read and follow any safety precautions listed on the labels of the specific products you use. HOW TO MAKE BLUE FLAMES It's very easy to make blue fire. Here are a few of the ways you can make blue fire yourself.

Natural Blue Fire The easiest way to make blue fire is to burn a chemical that naturally produces a blue flame. Most types of alcohol burn as blue fire, such as ethanol, methanol, and isopropyl alcohol. Natural gas also burns with a blue flame.

 ethanol (e.g., rum, vodka)  methanol (wood alcohol, Heet fuel treatment)  isoproyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol)  natural gas

Easy Method of Making Blue Fire Several metal salts burn with a blue flame, such as certain copper, arsenic, and lead compounds. Antimony and lead are toxic, but you can use copper(I) chloride to produce blue fire.

1. Add a small amount of water to copper(I) chloride to dissolve the salt. If you cannot find copper(I) chloride, it is possible to make this chemical yourself. Copper(II) chloride is more widely available, but it will burn with a blue-green flame. 2. Soak a flammable material with the copper chloride solution. Good choices include sawdust or pinecones. 3. Allow the material to dry. When you light it or add it to a normal fire you will get blue fire.

Most flames from candles or wood burning fire are yellow, but you can color a blue flame so that it will become yellow. Here's what you do.

Chemicals That Produce Yellow Fire Yellow can be caused by the temperature of a flame, but it can also come from the emission spectrum of a chemical as it is heated. Typically this is caused by the presence of sodium in a fuel. You can produce a yellow fire by adding any of these common sodium compounds to a fire:  sodium chloride (table salt)  sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)  sodium bicarbonate (washing soda) HOW TO MAKE YELLOW FLAMES Most flames from candles or wood burning fire are yellow, but you can color a blue flame so that it will become yellow. Here's what you do.

Chemicals That Produce Yellow Fire Yellow can be caused by the temperature of a flame, but it can also come from the emission spectrum of a chemical as it is heated. Typically this is caused by the presence of sodium in a fuel. You can produce a yellow fire by adding any of these common sodium compounds to a fire:  sodium chloride (table salt)  sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)  sodium bicarbonate (washing soda)

Making Yellow Fire The yellow emission spectrum from sodium is so intense you really don't need to add sodium to most materials to produce a yellow flame. However, if you want to intensify the yellow color you can add salt to your fuel. Most of the chemicals that produce yellow fire are soluble in water. Dissolve any of the salts in a very small amount of water or in rubbing alcohol, which is a mixture of alcohol and water. Mix the sodium solution with your fuel (e.g., naphtha, alcohol) to add yellow color to a blue or colorless flame.

HOW TO MAKE RED FLAMES Road flares contain strontium nitrate in addition to other ingredients (potassium nitrate or potassium perchlorate, sawdust, charcoal, maybe some sulfur, magnesium, or aluminum). Strontium salts burn bright red. If you want to make red fire and aren't in a position to order strontium salts it's easy to harvest material from a road flare. Here's what you do:

1. Take a pocket knife or steak knife and carefully cut open the cardboard tube of the flare. 2. Pour the powder into a bowl or jar. 3. You can sprinkle this powder sparingly onto a camp fire or fireplace fire. 4. You can store unused powder in a paper bag. Keep it dry, but away from heat and flame.

Alternatively, you can ignite the powder directly. Put about a tablespoon of powder onto a fire-proof surface. Pour a little accelerant onto the base of your powder (I used Heet, which is methanol). Light the accelerant. If you are using methanol, it will burn out and the powder will begin to burn. The flame will be very bright. You may wish to cut the mixture with powdered sugar or charcoal before lighting it. HOW TO COLOR FIRE I know I'm not the only person who has rummaged through old magazines and newspapers, looking for highly colored pages to throw onto a fire to make colored flames. This method of coloring fire, while fun, is hit-and-miss. Have you ever wanted to know how to color the fire reliably? I've compiled a list of colorants and simple instructions for using them. Here are some of your options:

 Toss dry colorants onto the flames.  Soak logs in an alcohol solution of colorants.  Soak logs in an aqueous (water) solution of colorants and allow the logs to dry.  Prepare pinecones, sawdust, or cork with colorants.

In general, there is no specific proportion of colorant to mix with the water or alcohol. Add as much powdered colorant as will dissolve in the liquid (roughly a half pound colorant to a gallon of water). Do not attempt to mix colors together - you will probably end up with a normal yellow flame. If you want multicolored fire, try adding several pinecones, each treated with a single colorant, or scatter a mixture of dried colored sawdusts across the fire.

How to Prepare Pinecones or Sawdust It's easy! Remember to do this procedure separately for each color. You can combine dry pinecones or sawdust with different colorants later. 1. Pour water into a bucket. Use sufficient water to be able to wet your pinecones, sawdust, or waste cork. Skip to step 3 if you purchased your colorant in liquid form. 2. Stir in colorant until you can't dissolve any more. For sawdust or waste cork, you may also add some liquid glue, which will allow the pieces to stick together and form larger chunks. 3. Add the pinecones, sawdust, or cork. Mix to form an even coat. 4. Let the material soak in the colorant mixture for several hours or overnight. 5. Spread the pieces out to dry. If desired, pinecones may be placed in a paper or mesh bag. You can spread sawdust or cork out on paper, which will also produce colored flames.

How to Prepare Logs Follow steps 1 and 2 above and either roll a log around in the container (big container, small log) or else pour and spread the mixture onto the logs. Wear kitchen or other protective gloves to protect your hands. Allow the logs to dry. If you make your own newspaper logs, you can smear colorant onto the paper before rolling it.

Points to Keep in Mind  The element sodium burns with the usual yellow flame. The presence of this element can overwhelm any other color. If you are making a dry mixture of colorants or colored pinecones/sawdust, you should avoid including any colorant that has sodium in it.  If you are using alcohol-based colorants: Remember that alcohol is flammable. If you don't allow it to evaporate before use, you will get a lighter-fluid effect. Use with care!  Don't color BBQ fire! The colorants may produce pretty flames, but they can also produce toxic food.  Keep the colorants away from children and handle them with the care and respect due to potentially hazardous chemicals. Read and adhere to any warnings listed on product labels.

Listed below are colorants that can be used safely with fire. Most can be found in a grocery or dry goods store, in the laundry or cleaner section. Look for copper sulfate in swimming pool supplies (already in water, which is fine). Potassium chloride is used as a salt substitute and may be found in the spice section. Epsom salts, borax, and calcium chloride may be found with laundry/cleaning supplies. Others, including strontium chloride, can be obtained from stores that specialize in rocketry or firework supplies. In the pilot episode of "Breaking Bad", chemistry teacher Walt White performs a demonstration in which he changes the color of a Bunsen burner flame by spraying the flame with chemicals. You can perform the colored fire demonstration yourself. All you need are some common chemicals, alcohol, and spray bottles. Here is a list of metal salts you can use to (safely) color fire. The chemicals have low toxicity and any smoke produced won't be any better/worse for you than normal wood smoke:

Colored Fire Chemicals  dark red = lithium chloride  red = strontium chloride (found in emergency flares)  orange = calcium chloride (a bleaching powder)  yellow = sodium chloride (table salt) or sodium carbonate  yellowish green = borax (sodium borate, a common insecticide and cleaning agent)  green = copper sulfate (found in some pool and aquarium chemicals)  blue = copper chloride (lab chemical, but other copper compounds found in algaecides and fungicides may work)  Green/Blue = small amounts of copper pipe  violet = 3 parts potassium sulfate, 1 part potassium nitrate (saltpeter)  purple = potassium chloride (sometimes sold as a 'lite' salt)  white = magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts)  White sparkles = toss in white sugar granules

Prepare the Flame Colorants If you were just coloring a campfire or other wood fire, you could simply sprinkle the dry metal salts onto the fire. Copper chloride is especially nice for this since the sodium that is naturally present in wood causes this chemical to produce a mix of blue, green, and yellow flames. However, for the gas flame in a burner, you need the salts dissolved in a flammable liquid. The obvious choice here is alcohol. Common alcohols found around the home could include rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) or ethanol (e.g., in vodka). In some cases, the metal salts will first need to be dissolved in a small volume of water and then mixed with alcohol so that they can be spray onto a flame. Some salts may not dissolve, so what you can do is grind them into a fine powder and suspend them in liquid.

Fire Color - Source Green - Boric acid is probably your best source of "green". Boric acid most commonly is sold as a disinfectant in the pharmacy section of a store. Copper sulfate is another metal salt that produces green fire. You can find copper sulfate, usually diluted in liquid form, in products used to control algae in pools or ponds. White - Magnesium compounds can lighten a flame color to white. You can add Epsom salts, which are used for a variety of household purposes. I usually see Epsom salts sold in the pharmacy section of stores for use as a bath soak. Yellow - Your usual fire will be yellow already, but if you are burning a fuel that produces a blue flame, for example, you can turn it from green to yellow by adding sodium salt, such as common table salt. Orange - Calcium chloride produces orange fire. Calcium chloride is sold as a desiccant and as a road de-icing agent. Just be sure the calcium chloride isn't mixed with sodium chloride or else the yellow from the sodium will overpower the orange from the calcium. Red - Strontium salts produce red colored fire. The easiest way to get strontium is to break open a red emergency flare, which you can find in the automotive section of stores. Road flares contain their own fuel and oxidizer, so this material burned vigorously and very brightly. Purple - Purple or violet flames may be produced by adding potassium chloride to the fire. Potassium chloride is sold as lite salt or salt substitute in the spice section of the grocery store. Blue - You can get blue fire from copper chloride. I am not aware of a widely-available source of copper chloride. You can produce it by dissolving copper wire (easy to locate) in muriatic acid (sold in building supply stores). This would be an outdoors-only type of reaction and not something I really recommend doing unless you have a little chemistry experience... but if you're determined, dissolve a piece of copper in a solution of 3% hydrogen peroxide (sold as a disinfectant) to which you have added sufficient muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid) to make 5% HCl solution.

HOW TO START FIRES USING CHEMICALS Learn four ways to make fire using chemical reactions. No matches or lighter are needed to start the fire.

Chemical Fire #1  potassium permanganate  glycerin  water Add a few drops of glycerin to a few crystals of potassium permanganate. Accelerate the reaction by adding a couple of drops of water.

Chemical Fire #2  acetone  sulfuric acid  potassium permanganate Soak a tissue with acetone to make it more flammable. Draw sulfuric acid into a glass pipette. Dip the pipette into potassium permanganate so that the tip of the pipette is coated with a few crystals. Dispense the sulfuric acid onto the tissue. The potassium permanganate and sulfuric acid mix to produce manganese heptoxide and fire.

Chemical Fire #3  sodium chlorate  sugar  sulfuric acid Mix a small amount of sodium chlorate and sugar. Initiate the reaction by adding a few drops of sulfuric acid.

Chemical Fire #4  ammonium nitrate powder  finely ground zinc powder  hydrochloric acid Mix together a small amount of ammonium nitrate and zinc powder. Initiate the reaction by adding a few drops of hydrochloric acid.

Chemical Fire Safety If you are performing a demonstration of chemical fire using any of these reactions, use very small amounts of the chemicals listed for each project. Wear proper safety gear and work on a fire-safe surface.