I bought my girlfriend a little ethanol fueled fireplace for Christmas. Much of the fuel is wicked up by fiberglass packing material around the perimeter of the fuel tank / combustion chamber, and the vapors are burned, and it makes a cheery little fire.

 

Ethanol makes a flickering blue yellow flame (a little CO) about 9 inches high. Methanol makes a shorter blue (no CO) cone. If I add Isopropanol to the methanol, it begins to look like the ethanol flame.

 

I would like to add copper to make a green flame (she likes it), but I have been unsucessful on several attemps.

 

I have added copper sulfate to the fuel, but since it is the vapor that burns and not the liquid, there is little effect exept concentrating the CuSO4 in the unburned liquid fuel.

 

I have tried copper wire in several diameters from magnet wire coils to thick pieces but I think the surface of the wire is quickly oxidized (or reduced) and only a very brief green color is seen.

 

Anyone have any ideas on how to accomplish this and make me a hero to my Art Professor?

Methanol and Boric acid should do the trick.

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Spirit-Lantern-Green-Fire-20/

Borates might be a bit toxic unless the fire is vented outside (and even then it's not ideal).

 

The essential problem is that copper and its oxide are not very volatile.

A "solution" to that problem is to add hydrochloric acid to the fuel because that will convert the copper oxide to chloride (which is much more volatile).

Clearly, that's a problem because HCl is not nice stuff- it's corrosive and toxic.

 

More surface area of copper might help- try copper gauze, rather than wire.