From: Donald Campbell, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
><<BP contains Potassium Nitrate (75% by weight), an oxidiser
>which will oxidise (rust) steel in the presence of moisture.
>Also, one of the products of combustion is
>Sulphuric acid, a recognised corrosive which will attack steel.>>
>
>Yes Potassium Nitrate (KNO3 (all my trailing numbers are
>subscript :-))is an oxidiser - it is where we get our oxygen
>for the combustion of BP to take place. There is absolutely NO
>Sulphuric Acid produced by burning Black Powder.
>
>BP is a mixture of one salt (Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) and
>two elemental solids; Carbon (C), as charcoal and Sulphur (S)
>in the proportion of KNO3 (75%), Carbon (15%) and Sulphur (10%)
>
>For combustion to occur we need fuel (carbon,) oxygen (from
>the salt) and an ignition source: (remember the fire triangle?)
>- (The Sulphur acts as a catalyst, and to 'clean up' the process)
>
>Chemically, the empirical formula for combustion of Black
>Powder can be written as follows:
>
> Heat>
>4KNO4 + 7C + 2S = K2CO3 + K2S2 + 3CO2 + 2N2
>
<snip>
I must dig out my old books, its been a long time since my Chemistry
days at Uni.
I would be surprised if no SO2 where produced. Most would be expelled
but some would be adsorbed on to the barrel surface.
SO2 + H2O = H2S03 better known as sulphurous acid. not as active as
its big brother, but it gets there in the end.
Depending on the temperature you are also likely to get some oxides of
nitrogen, which equally will get together with water to produce a
mixture of nitrous and nitric acid.
I must look up the "lead chamber method". I can not remember if this was
for Nitric of Sulphuric acid. O level chemistry stuff, 27 years ago for
me, memory is getting thin.
Regards
Donald Campbell
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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