Colored Fire is a common pyrotechnic effect used in stage productions, fireworks and by fire performers the world over. Generally, the color of a flame A flame is the visible (light-emitting) gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic reaction (for example, combustion, a self-sustaining oxidation reaction) taking place in a thin zone. If a fire is hot enough to ionize the gaseous components, it can become a plasma may be red, orange, yellow, or white, and is dominated by blackbody radiation Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation emitted from the surface of an object which is due to the object's temperature. An example of thermal radiation is the infrared radiation emitted by a common household radiator or electric heater. A person near a raging bonfire will feel the radiated heat of the fire, even if the surrounding air is from soot Soot is a general term that refers to impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of a hydrocarbon. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolyzed fuel particles such as cenospheres, charred wood, petroleum coke, etc. that may become and steam Steam is vaporized water. It is a transparent gas. At standard temperature and pressure, pure steam occupies about 1,600 times the volume of an equal mass of liquid water. In the atmosphere, the partial pressure of water is much lower than 1 atm, therefore gaseous water can exist at temperatures much lower than 100 °C (212 °F) (see water vapor. When additional chemicals are added to the fuel burning, their atomic emission The two states must be bound states in which the electron is bound to the atom, so the transition is sometimes referred to as a "bound–bound" transition, as opposed to a transition in which the electron is ejected out of the atom completely into a continuum state, leaving an ionized atom, and generating continuum radiation spectra can affect the frequencies of visible light radiation emitted - in other words, the flame will appear a different color dependent upon the chemical additives. Flame coloring is also a good way to demonstrate how chemicals change when subjected to heat and how they also change the matter around them.

Pyrotechnicians will generally use metal salts to color their flames. Specific combinations of fuels and co-solvents are required in order to dissolve the necessary chemicals. Color enhancers are frequently added too, the most common of which is polyvinyl chloride Polyvinyl chloride, (IUPAC Poly) commonly abbreviated PVC, is a thermoplastic polymer. It is a vinyl polymer constructed of repeating vinyl groups (ethenyls) having one of their hydrogens replaced with a chloride group.

Contents

Flame Colorants

Color Chemical Image
Carmine (Dark Red) Lithium chloride Lithium chloride is a chemical compound with the formula Li
Red Strontium chloride Strontium chloride is a salt of strontium and chloride. It is a typical salt, forming neutral aqueous solutions. Like all compounds of Sr, this salt emits a bright red colour in a flame and in fact is used as a source of redness in fireworks. Its chemical properties are intermediate between those for barium chloride, which is more toxic, and
Orange Calcium chloride Calcium chloride, CaCl2, is a common salt. It behaves as a typical ionic halide, and is solid at room temperature. It has several common applications such as brine for refrigeration plants, ice and dust control on roads, and in concrete. The anhydrous salt is also widely used as a desiccant, where it will adsorb so much water that it will
Yellow Sodium chloride Sodium chloride, also known as salt, common salt, table salt, or halite, is an ionic compound with the formula Na (table salt) or Sodium carbonate Sodium carbonate , Na2CO3, is a sodium salt of carbonic acid. It most commonly occurs as a crystalline heptahydrate, which readily effloresces to form a white powder, the monohydrate; and is domestically well known for its everyday use as a water softener. It has a cooling alkaline taste, and can be extracted from the ashes of many plants. It is
Yellowish Green Borax Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid. It is usually a white powder consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water (Sodium Borate)
Green Copper(II) sulfate Copper sulfate is the chemical compound with the formula Cu
Blue Copper(I) chloride Copper chloride, commonly called cuprous chloride, is the lower chloride of copper, with the formula CuCl. This colorless solid is a versatile precursor to other copper compounds, including some of commercial significance. It occurs naturally as the rare mineral nantokite. Unlike other first-row transition metal halides, it forms stable complexes, Butane Butane is a hydrocarbon with formula C4H10, that is, an alkane with four carbon atoms. The term may refer to any of two structural isomers, or to a mixture of them:
Violet 3 parts Potassium sulfate Potassium sulfate (in British English potassium sulphate, also called sulphate of potash, arcanite, or archaically known as potash of sulfur) is a non-flammable white crystalline salt which is soluble in water. The chemical is commonly used in fertilizers, providing both potassium and sulfur, 1 part Potassium nitrate Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula K (saltpeter)
Purple Potassium chloride The chemical compound potassium chloride is a metal halide salt composed of potassium and chlorine. In its pure state it is odorless. It has a white or colorless vitreous crystal, with a crystal structure that cleaves easily in three directions. Potassium chloride crystals are face-centered cubic. Potassium chloride is occasionally known as "
White Magnesium sulfate Magnesium sulfate is a chemical compound containing magnesium, sulfur and oxygen, with the formula MgSO4. In its hydrated form the pH is 6.0 (5.5 to 6.5). It is often encountered as the heptahydrate, MgSO4·7H2O, commonly called Epsom salt. Anhydrous magnesium sulfate is used as a drying agent. Since the anhydrous form is hygroscopic (readily (Epsom salts)

Emitted colors depend on the electronic configuration of the elements involved. Heat energy from the flame excites electrons to a higher quantum level, and the atoms emit characteristic colors (photons with energies corresponding to the visible spectrum) as they return to lower energy levels.

Campfire Colorants

Flame colorants are becoming popular while camping. Scouts and other outdoor enthusiasts have placed sections of copper pipe with holes drilled throughout and stuffed with garden hose onto campfires to create a variety of flame colors. An easier and more accepted method of coloring campfires has been fueled by commercial products. These packages of flame colorants are tossed onto a campfire A campfire is a fire lit at a campsite, usually in a fire ring. Campfires are a popular feature of camping, particularly among organized campers such as Scouts or Guides. Without proper precautions they are also potentially dangerous. A certain degree of skill is needed to properly build a campfire, to keep it going, and to see that it is properly or into a fireplace to produce effects.

Although these chemicals are very effective at imparting their color into an already existing flame, these substances are not flammable alone. To get a powder or solid that, when lit, produces a colored flame, things get a little more complicated. To get a powder to burn satisfactorily, both a fuel and oxidizer will probably be needed. Common oxidizers include:

Ammonium perchlorate It is produced by reaction between ammonia and perchloric acid, and is the driver behind the industrial production of perchloric acid. It also can be prepared by treatment of ammonium salts with sodium perchlorate. This process exploits the fact that the solubility of NH4ClO4 is about 10% of that for sodium perchlorate

Ammonium nitrate The chemical compound ammonium nitrate, the nitrate of ammonia with the chemical formula N

Barium nitrate Baratol is an explosive composed of barium nitrate, TNT and binder; the high density of barium nitrate results in baratol being quite dense as well. Barium nitrate mixed with aluminium powder, a formula for flash powder, is highly explosive. It is mixed with Thermite to form Thermate-TH3, used in military thermite grenades. It is also used in the

Barium chlorate Barium chlorate is a white crystalline solid. It is an irritant, and if consumed can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea. It is used in pyrotechnics to produce a green colour

Guanine Guanine is one of the five main nucleobases found in the nucleic acids DNA and RNA, the others being adenine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil. In DNA, guanine is paired with cytosine. With the formula C5H5N5O, guanine is a derivative of purine, consisting of a fused pyrimidine-imidazole ring system with conjugated double bonds. Being unsaturated, nitrate

Potassium nitrate Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula K (saltpeter)

Potassium chlorate Potassium chlorate is a compound containing potassium, chlorine and oxygen, with the molecular formula KClO3. In pure form, it is a white crystalline substance. It is the most common chlorate in industrial use, and is usually present in well-stocked laboratories. It is used

Potassium perchlorate Potassium perchlorate is produced by double decomposition reaction with sodium perchlorate and potassium chloride. Sodium perchlorate is manufactured by anodic oxidation of sodium chloride

Strontium nitrate Strontium nitrate is typically generated by the reaction of nitric acid on strontium carbonate

Sodium nitrate Sodium nitrate is the chemical compound with the formula NaNO3. This salt, also known as "Chile saltpeter" or "Peru saltpeter" , is a white solid which is very soluble in water. The mineral form is also known as nitratine or soda niter

Really there are a few simple rules for deciding which oxidizer to use when:

1. Metal color:

Metals Colors
Potassium Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (Latin: kalium, from Arabic: القَلْيَه‎ al-qalyah "plant ashes", cf. Alkali from the same root), atomic number 19, and atomic mass 39.0983. Potassium was first isolated from potash. Elemental potassium is a soft silvery-white metallic alkali metal that oxidizes rapidly in air Pink/Purple

See also

Notes

External links

This chemistry Chemistry (from Arabic: كيمياء Latinized: chem , meaning "earth") is the science concerned with the composition, behavior, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions. It is a physical science for studies of various atoms, molecules, crystals and other aggregates of matter article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

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Why all the color of fire are either orange or blue in color?
Q. According to the light theory, when all of the frequencies of visible light are radiated together the result is white (sun) light. So then, why all the colors of fire are either blue or orange?
Asked by Jake L - Mon Oct 13 22:45:07 2008 - - 2 Answers - 0 Comments

A. all i know is that the blue is hotter than the orangish yellow
Answered by beanpoppy - Mon Oct 13 23:03:52 2008

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