Smoke bomb components and chemical reaction
Posted on | May 2, 2010 | No Comments
Smoke bombs are made from three items combined together in a casing with an ejection port. The smoke bombs you buy are composed of an oxidizer, a fuel, and a coolant or controlling agent. Most fireworks plants use potassium chlorate for an oxidizer, Sucrose or Dextrin for a slow burning fuel, and sodium bicarbonate for a controlling agent. Potassium chlorate is available easily enough it is also known as salt peter and can be obtained on the Internet, any hobby shop that sells chemical supplies, or some garden supply stores carry it in the fertilizer section. The controlling agent is basically baking soda, however only factory made smoke bombs can do this because bonding the controlling agent with the oxidizer/fuel mixture can be dangerous and can release unhealthy gases. Don’t worry though to make an effective smoke bomb you can just use the first two “the oxidizer and fuel”. This will work almost as well as factory made but it burns much faster instead of releasing smoke in a slower controlled manner. to make a smoke bomb at home use a sauce pan to cook a mixture of potassium chlorate and sugar in a ratio of 5 parts potassium chlorate to 3 parts sugar. Use very low heat and stir in a slow steady circular motion. continue until you have crystallized the sugar. When you are finished your mixture will look like caramel or dark syrup. Since it is liquid you can form it by using foil or anything you want. I used foil and formed it perfectly round so I could fire it out of some PVC (kind of like a potato cannon) and that made for a very cool science experiment! This way I had a practical use for them during my paintball wars.
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