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Activated Carbon


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#1 pyrodude

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Posted 26 January 2004 - 08:22 PM

hiya
Does Activated Carbon and Potassium Permagante have any uses in pyro possibly in stars or something.
Cheers Kyle

#2 Richard H

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Posted 26 January 2004 - 09:31 PM

I would doubt it.

#3 Phoenix

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Posted 26 January 2004 - 10:20 PM

:o Better to ask than to end up dead...Leave potassium permanganate well alone. It really is horrible, horrible stuff. It has a habit of spontaneously igniting things when it contacts them. No doubt you've heard of the glycerin trick, but if you mix KMnO4 and sugar and put a drop of water on it it will ignite. The same can happen with it and dextrin. In fact many things will begin to heat up whn mixed damp with it. Not only that, but it is also quite poisonous, much more so than, say, KNO3, and will stain everything it touches brown. It is so unstable that even if a composition made with it doesn't kill you, it will soon become useless. It doesn't really have any place in serious fireworks. I've been there. I know. I've grown up now. Use it to clean your fish tank with.

The topic of activated charcoal was discussed on rec.pyrotechnics a while ago. You could have a look in the google archive if you wanted. As far as I am aware, it is largely untested, but not particularly superior to regular willow charoal (for BP).
However, it does have a use in pyrotechnics other than compositions. As someone on the Forum said before, it is effective in absorbing poisons. If you have some activated carbon, you could keep some powdered in a liquid in your workshop. Then if you accidentally ingest anything unfriendly (which careful pyros seldom do), you can down the carbon. It could save your life.

#4 Stuart

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Posted 26 January 2004 - 10:28 PM

And KMnO4 is expensive in comparison to other oxidizers

#5 Richard H

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Posted 26 January 2004 - 10:31 PM

Activated carbon/charcoal is great for gas masks and absorbing chemical nasties, but apart from that it's not too useful really (In terms of pyrotechnics).

#6 Stuart

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Posted 26 January 2004 - 10:35 PM

What is activated carbon anyway?

#7 Phoenix

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Posted 26 January 2004 - 10:45 PM

It's charcoal that's been carbonized at very high temperatures and treated with assorted things like hydrochloric acid. This gives it an exceptionally porous structure, so it is able to absorb chemicals easily. It's used in water treatment (the black grainy stuff in water filter cartridges) and, as Richard said, in gas masks and such like (fume hoods etc).

#8 Richard H

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Posted 26 January 2004 - 10:45 PM

Just found this...

"AC is a black, solid substance resembling granular or
powdered charcoal. It is extremely porous with a very large
surface area. One ounce of AC has an estimated 30,000
square yards of surface area.

Certain contaminants
accumulate on the surface of the AC. This is called
adsorption. The two main reasons that chemicals adsorb onto
AC is 1) a "dislike" of the water and 2) attraction to the
AC. Adsorption of most contaminants results from a
combination of 1 and 2.

Many organic compounds, such as chlorinated and nonchlorinated solvents, gasoline, pesticides and trihalomethanes can be adsorbed by AC. AC is also effective for removal of chlorine and moderately
effective for removal of some heavy metals.

Metals that are bound to organic molecules will also be removed by AC.
Fluoride, chloride, nitrate, hardness (calcium and
magnesium) and most metal ions are not removed by AC to any
significant degree.
It is important to note that carbon is not necessarily
the same as AC. AC removes vastly more contaminants from
water than does ordinary carbon."

I should therefore imagine that activated carbon is simply a very amorphous form of carbon.

#9 BurlHorse

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Posted 27 January 2004 - 12:27 AM

Your on the Money Richard, Very good post.

I tried several Fish tank grades of AC to see if the surface area could help in the CIA method of BP production, Early on in my Pyro days. Makes Acceptable BP, but the surface area did not, as I could tell absorb any more Nitrate than any other Carbon/Charcoal/Coal. Just a thought.

Regards, Stay Green,

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#10 Stuart

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Posted 27 January 2004 - 07:06 AM

Ok, Thanks for the description

#11 Aussie Pyro King

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Posted 27 January 2004 - 08:31 AM

I quickly got bored with its hardness. :D

#12 Stuart

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Posted 07 February 2004 - 08:15 PM

Here's a little find I made

Activated Charcoal: Made from wood and vegetation.
Animal Charcoal: Made by charring bones, meat, or blood.
Lamp Black: Made from burning various oils and fats.
Gas Black: Made from the incomplete combustion of natural gas


Stuart

#13 italteen3

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Posted 08 February 2004 - 03:44 AM

I have recently purchased a respirator and extra cartridges for it, got it yesterday, for some of the lightweight chemicals that tend to float when I work with them. I tested it out today while making a tad of Flash powder. I put some fumed silica into the perchlorate to keep it from clumping up. The silica and German dark just LOVE to float up in my face. It seems to have helped because the fumed silica especially was in my face and Im not dying.

Anyway will activated carbon help any bit if any chemicals are inhaled or just for ingestion of toxic chemicals? Now on a busy day when I start to get into making stars, shells, and cakes can I down some activated carbon just incase? I mean better safe than sorry but if ingested and does not neutralize another toxin is it poisonous?

#14 Steve

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Posted 14 February 2012 - 12:00 PM

I know this is one hell of a thread resurrection, but I've been reading about activated carbon and found this thread with some anaswered questions from Italteen3. Thought it would be good to answer for anyone else looking in future.

Activated carbon works by absorbing toxins in your stomach, however "a lot of rubbish comes out of your body via bile, of which ~80% is re-absorbed, so it does have a chance of filtering your blood." (Information in quotes is only read on the internet by someone trying to sell it, so treat with caution.)
It will also soak up a lot of stuff wich is potentially quite useful to you, and if you get in the habit of necking activated carbon on a regular basis, you could start suffering from vitamin or mineral defficiensies.
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