yesterday i decided to recover potassium chlorate/potassium perchlorate by adding match heads to boiling water, filtering out the recovered sulfur and cardboard and boiling off the water. well, i found that as i concentrated it, the mixture (that ended up as a solution/suspension of white powder) turned a certain light blue, as seen below. can anybody tell me what that blue is from?

probably dye traces used in the match colorant

the match wasn't colored.

 

anyway i figured out the problem. it was that the oxidizers in the solution oxidized my pan (stanless steel) and the color is from aqueous nickel and chromium. highly carcinogenic salts, anyone?

unusual for match head not to have any color added???

 

but that aside, your formula must have been somewhat acidic in that case (again unusual for matches)

not only that, but I can see how you`de arrive that conclusion, Nickel being mostly green salts and Chromium being mostly yellor/orange, but a mix of the 2 wouldn`t make "Blue"

 

and again, Not only that, but the metals in the pan would have have gone in order of oxidation, Iron would have suffered the most, leaving the chrome and nickel alone (think displacement).

 

so no, none of it explains the BLUE color in anyway, other than the head dye or a previously contaminated/unwashed peice of apparatus

the color of the match head was white.

 

the equipment i used was all clean.

Blue dye is OFTEN used as a "whitener" (even in washing powder for clothes) )

that's quite strange. any way i could filter it out?

ah yes. i just did it again without using the pot i used. same result.

 

as for filtering it out, no, I don`t think that`ll be possible, you may be able to crystalise the Chlorate and remove some of the larger ones manualy, as the crystals will be 100% pure and dye free, but other than that, you`re just going to have to live with it

thats sad. the one annoying thing about fractional distillation with small amounts of solute is that the "crystals" are really mostly powder that you have to scrape out of your beaker with some crystals moving with the water.

i just did this again and used a few red match heads with the white ones, which, i just realized is not necessarily a good thing. the solution is now red, so i don't believe the red is red phosphorus, but it could easily kill me if it is. do you think it is red p?

and i came up with this...what is the white? sulfur or chlorate? (84 match heads in 100mL H2O strained with tissue paper twice)

I don't think the red stuff is phosphorous. If I'm correct, matches with red P in them haven't been produced for a looong time (because they kept igniting without warning on hot days, in people's pockets). So unless your matches are almost antique, the red is most likely something else than red phosphorous.

probably just a dye. i left it out in my room overnight and the red still was throughout, not on the bottom.

the white is the KClO3, it`s NOT very soluable, the red will be Dye also.

RP as mentioned is used on the SIDE of match boxes (safety matches), but in the plain friction ignition types Phosphorus Sesquisulfide is used IIRC. the stuff you have is Dye and Chlorate

i thought chlorates and perchlorates were very soluble. apparently i was wrong. i know red phosphorus is found on the striker, but it was used in very old matches, matches i most likely am not using. thanks for the help

So it isn't that easy to isolate pure KClO3/O4 at all, or is it?

yeah, it's been easy for me.

So, let me get this straight:

 

1. Take off the match head stuff.

2. Boil it in a small amount of water until the sulfur and cardboard comes off.

3. Pour it through a coffee filter.

4. Boil it some more, until the potassium chlorate/perchlorate starts to form.

5. Dry the KClO3/O4 and make powder out of it.

 

That's all?

notes:

2. the sulfur and cardboard come off between 80 and 90 celcius.

4. boil it down, but leave a little water or it will start to decompose. if there is still sulfur it will explode.

1st attempt at isolating the chlorate and perchlorate:

 

Used a glass jar. And a lighter. Jar goes boom, match head mush all over the place. >:/ I think I'm going to use a steel kettle next time.

did you not use water???

Naturally. It's just that when you don't have laboratory grade glass, things tend to go... well, wrong.

that's very, very odd. im thinking you had some type of reducing agent in there because the chlorate does not explode with higher temps.

Yeah well, I think there wasn't a problem with the chlorate; the glass just couldn't handle the temperature. But now I have attempted it once again (this time with a kettle with some water in it and a glass jar in the water); I have a green (match dye) water solution with some small white crystals floating around and I'm going to try and purify it more tomorrow. Any way of proving it's potassium chlorate, such as a special flame characteristic when ignited?