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Demo: Instant Fire

  • Page ID
    3120
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    Don't play with fire, boys and girls.

    Introduction

    Combine potassium chlorate, sugar and sulfuric acid together to initiate a reaction that produces a lot of heat with bright flames and smoke. Add alkaline earth metals to change the color.

    Reactions

    2KClO3 (s) + heat -> 2KCl (s) + 3O2 (g)

    The oxygen then burns the sugar (C12H22O11):

    C12H22O11 + 12 O2 -> 12 CO2 + 11 H2O

    Safety


    Demo: Instant Fire is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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