Negative-X

[Douchermann]

I'm sure a number of you have heard of this composition before, some probably have even made it. When properly mixed, a drop or two of room temp water will cause this mixture to burst into a zinc green flame (you know what I'm talking about if you've used zinc in a composition before) within a couple seconds. WARNING: Do not store this; use it as you make it. Try not to make it when its humid out also and make sure all of your ingredients are dry (ammonium nitrate usually causes the biggest problem with this).

 

Ratios are as follows:

 

Zinc dust: 69%

Ammonium Nitrate: 28%

Ammonium Chloride: 3%

 

Mix the ammonium chloride and ammonium nitrate together and grind them to a fine powder in a mortar and pestel. Pour them into a cup or similar device and grind your zinc up if it has any lumps. Add the ammonium nitrate/chloride mixture to the zinc powder and mix well.

 

The ratios I got from united nuclear if you were wondering

Unfortunately, I can't find the tape that has videos of this stuff burning so I can't show you any until I find it.

[Givat]

Here is a movie Of about 5 grams of this mix.

http://www.apcforum.net/files/NEGATIVE_X.wmv

[Mephistos Minion]

Holy shit that burns ferociously! Lawl, BigBang, you must have shat yourself when that went off in your pants!

[BigBang]

DAMN IT YOU CAN KISS MY ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I had a wopping 20 grams in my pocket. I was prepping a G-80 motor at the time, and thought it went off. That would have sucked even more due to the flame being as hot as thermite.

 

Yes, I was close to needing a new pair of boxers, thank you very much

[Mumbles]

Yes, I was close to needing a new pair of boxers, thank you very much

From the shitting of ones pants, or the you know burning composition resting against them?

[BigBang]

I actually did need new ones from having them catch fire and burning large holes in one side. You know what I meant though.

 

To anyone making this, don't store it, and if you do, make sure to have a someone video tape you as you are burnt to a crisp.

[Douchermann]

Haha yeah fun stuff, I'll have to post my little accident I had with this stuff in the accidents thread.

[Swany]

And just for the record, BigBang informs me he did not fry his balls. Or anything remotely close to this, as I had assumed they were slightly toasted and proceeded to warn others of the dangers storing this with that warning. You will lose your balls.

 

Any chloride will do well as a catalyst, much to my relief. I had not thought of titrating ammonia with HCl, and was thus without the needed ammonium chloride... so I thought. NaCl did nicely.

 

Shooting water pistols, filled with HCl, is much more fun than say... water pistols filled with conventional liquids. HCl happily initaiates it instantly, even with a coarser zinc that I use, roughly 200-400 mesh.

[AreteVeteran]

And just for the record, BigBang informs me he did not fry his balls. Or anything remotely close to this, as I had assumed they were slightly toasted and proceeded to warn others of the dangers storing this with that warning. You will lose your balls.

 

Any chloride will do well as a catalyst, much to my relief. I had not thought of titrating ammonia with HCl, and was thus without the needed ammonium chloride... so I thought. NaCl did nicely.

 

Shooting water pistols, filled with HCl, is much more fun than say... water pistols filled with conventional liquids. HCl happily initaiates it instantly, even with a coarser zinc that I use, roughly 200-400 mesh.

yeah swany, its all fun and games till someone gets HCl in their eyes, hey but could CuCl2/CuCl or CaCl2 be used as well?

has anyone tried either of these, i ask about the former because of its green flame to compliment and enhance the zinc's, and the latter because its damn easy to find and has 2x as much Cl per molecule

 

 

 

~Arete

[lacrima97]

Hmm. I think my brother is a smart little guy. Ha, I showed him that video, and he said, "the water isnt making it burn, its that fact that its in contact with the substance that is making it burn." So, Im guessing that this was a very pyrophoric mixture, and the water just lowered the temperature so that autoignition occured, correct?

[Mumbles]

It's correct up until the point of water lowering the temperature. There are two possibilities that I see.

 

1) It forms Ammonium hydroxide, which reacts with the zinc very exothermicly, and then proceeds to ignite the mixture. The ammonium ions solvate the hydroxide ions preventing an oxide layer from blocking reactions.

 

2) It solvates the chloride ion, which corrodes the zinc exothermicly, thus lighting the mixture. Chloride is actually a fairly corrosive ion.

 

Upon further thinking, I think it is a bit of both. The AN is important, but so is the chloride ion. The only reason any chloride works, is because there would also be ammonium ions present. You can't replace it with KNO3 for instance to my knowledge. My best bet would be the chloride initiates the solvation, by dissolving the oxide layer, and allowing the ammonium hydroxide to react with the bare metal. The reaction is extremely similar to the NaOH and Al reaction used to generate hydrogen. More water is generated and more heat, which is why only a few drops are added.

[Givat]

Here is what united nuclear wrote on this reaction:

Here's the chemical reaction that takes place:

 

1. Cl- (from NH4CL) acts as a catalyst on the decomposition of NH4NO3:

 

Cl-

 

NH4NO3-----------------> N2O(g) + 2 (H2O)(aq)

 

2. Water in the reaction causes the decomposition of more NH4NO3, which is an autocatalytic effect.

 

3. The reaction melts the NH4NO3 and allows the oxidation of the zinc. The overall reaction is:

 

Zn (s) + NH4NO3 (s)------> N2 (g) + ZnO (s) + 2 (H2O) (g)

http://www.unitednuclear.com/negx.htm

[Mumbles]

Chloride would not decompose NH4NO3 like that. If it would, all the dumbasses who abuse N2O would just have to add table salt to AN and add a little water. Best case scenario it would form Nitric acid, which reacts with the Zinc. The melting thing is an interesting notion though. AN does melt at a fairly low temperature, so it is certainly possible in the mechanism.