AussieBombTech Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 Im not sure if this belongs here if not you can move it. In Australia our chemical selection is next t9 nothing, so we have to make it. Ive tried electrolysis of potassium chloride but didnt get a very good yield for my money. I recently found out that I have roughly 10,000 safety matches stored in the garage. Dont ask me why lol, would dipping the heads in acetone or hot water and letting the heads dissolve into solution then filtering extract crude kclo3? I would recrystallise the yield but before I waste my matches I would like the find a good method. I can only find random Indian channels on YouTube with royalty free music dissolving them. All this work simply to make coloured smoke bombs. Bloody hell australia. Lighten up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeighborJ Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 You could do something like this. Ube can elaborate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieBombTech Posted September 4, 2018 Author Share Posted September 4, 2018 You could do something like this.https://youtu.be/5MrDYkkTVuw Ube can elaborate.That’s pretty cool but I’d rather get some use out of the chemicals in the matches rather than just waste them, some potassium dichromate and potassium chlorate would be nice to have in my collection. Not to mention I could clean up the strikers and get some nice red phosphorus that I could refine and make some Armstrong’s mix variants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeighborJ Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 I won't waste your time, i will say that any response i will have will be geared toward convincing you to build a cell. Yes it is possible to recover chlorate of questionable purity from match heads with water as a solvent. An old saying comes to mind: "You can give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieBombTech Posted September 4, 2018 Author Share Posted September 4, 2018 I won't waste your time, i will say that any response i will have will be geared toward convincing you to build a cell. Yes it is possible to recover chlorate of questionable purity from match heads with water as a solvent. An old saying comes to mind: "You can give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime."I know it’s better to do that but I’m more interested in the experiment rather than the outcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeighborJ Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 Water would be the solvent but it stands to reason that it was bound with a water soluble binder and dyed with a water soluble dye. I don't know the comp used to make matches but it could have other fuels which will create issues. I dont think the manufacturer will give you the formula so the easiest thing to do is try dissolving a pack and recrystalize it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goro20 Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 Late comment but i have tried this as wel and it works pretty good the only thing to consider is that there is still some sulfur and other small particles in the pottasium chlorate and that it isnt pure. you can scrape it off and it almost lights as fast as black powder so i dont really know how to get rid of the residue inside. I also tried to get Crystals in an ice bath which worked but made a very small yield. And you need a lot of matches to make it best thing is to just boil it until all the water disolves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goro20 Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 Also watch out with the armstrong shit thats really tacky if you have sand and even dust in it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 (edited) Weingart and Clark both offer match type compositions in listings and they usually indicate that the chlorate is 50 - 60% of the match head by mass. BUT the remainder is the fuel (typically antimony sulphide and glue) It should be possible to separate the ingredients as part of removing the matches from storage but it would be totally more difficult and more expensive than an electrolysis cell. The cell should cost less that £100 and the KCl for electrolysing is easily available. Edited January 20, 2019 by Arthur Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Swede Posted January 21, 2019 Share Posted January 21, 2019 If I look at some of the match compositions made in Sweden the amount of chlorate will be somewhere between 38 and 56 percent. The glue is water based but will take some time to re-dissolve, hot water is needed. Filtration and double re-crystallization should give a decently pure product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted January 21, 2019 Share Posted January 21, 2019 If you are a good lab chemist then the separation is trivial, but the yield may be between 30 and 50% of the mass of compound and I'd guess that a box of matches contains about 500mg of compond so 150 to 250mg of product. I'm absolutely certain that 1000g of table salt will turn into 1200g of chlorate very simply in a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitrotitanite Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 (edited) Sorry guys what it is from matches? Edited January 22, 2019 by Nitrotitanite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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