I was watching a show bout firefighters. To burn off flammable underbrush in forests so they dont ignite later, they filled ping pong balls with a chemical and dropped them from helicopters into the area that they wanted to burn the underbrush in. When filled with the chemical, the balls would ignite with a few seconds delay, i think it was 7 seconds. Does anyone know what the chemical could be?

probably an oxidizer of some sort

maybe h2o2 or hno3

i doubt that they would use h2o2 or hno3

wat cooould it be?

does anybody else have any ideas?

ping pong balls are made out of celluloid. From what i hear its like most part nitrocellulose or something. It depends on what oxidizers would be hypergols with celluloid.

it`s Potassium permanganate and an ethylene Glycol injection just before deployment.

I know that normal ping pong balls have some small amount of butane in them, I believe. (The only reason I know this is because while in college we lit a whole bunch of ping-pong balls on fire, and a nice clear, blue-flame came jetting out from an open hole we created in the ping-pong ball).

these ping pong balls are already pre-drilled and filled then sealed and packed before getting onboard the chopper.

the Gas inside is long gone before that

then how do they ignite if they are pre-filled? some kind of pin u pull?

didn`t you read my post #8 then?

oh sorry i mis-read it

yes, but some thing has to start it by mixing it (breaking a baggie of the glycol) so that it goes. How is this done?

Ethylene glycol can be replaced be glycerine if I recall correctly.

 

You just inject glycol into the dry permanganate. It gets hot due to glycol oxidtaion until it starts to burn. Ping pong ball is made of nitrocelluloid so once it starts to burn it gives long flame.

 

We made smoke bombs from ping pong balls when I was a kid

 

Best,

Borek

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Smarkotan oz gluthozmaz

Borek; you`re exactly correct on both counts, only Eth Gly is used as it gives a longer time before ignition

 

H2 READ post #8 it clearly states that potassium permanganate is in the NC spheres, and just before deplyment ethylene glycol is injected into them, WHAT PART don`t you understand here?

is ethyle glycol added to potassium permangabate solution or crystals?

Just liquid. If it was a solution (ie mixed with water) I doubt there will be strong exothermic reaction.

 

Besides, how do you want to inject crystals?

 

Best,

Borek

--

Chemical calculators at www.chembuddy.com

pH calculation

concentration calculator

well how do u inject a non-solution of potassium permanganate?

well how do u inject a non-solution of potassium permanganate?

arrghhhhhh!!

erm... who mentioned KMnO4(aq)?

i did i beleive- in what form is it injected tho?

re-read the entire thread again!

 

it`s closed now as the question has been answered and I don`t have time for this stupidity!