What are the chemical ingredients of Sparklers?

It seems very hard to imagine anybody, who has not used sparklers at least once during the life, starting from the early age until the adulthood. Sparklers are inseparable part of every celebration.

Sparklers are coming from China, after inventing gunpowder, one the ‘Four Greatest Inventions of Ancient China’, in the 9^th century. China still stays the largest manufacturer and exporter of different kinds of Sparklers.

 

We want to offer you a small explanation of the chemistry of sparklers. There are three main components in sparklers: a metal fuel, an oxidizer and a binder.

1. Metal fuel.       

• Aluminum, magnesium or magnalium, for producing whites parkle.
• Iron, for producing orange sparks 
• Titanium, for rich white sparks,
• Ferrotitanium, producing yellow or gold sparks.

If this is not enough for a range of colors, additional chemical colorants can be added. There are salts of various metals that can produce green, blue and red sparks.

2. Oxides.

• Barium nitrate
• Strontium nitrate
• Potassium per chlorate

The oxidizer plays important role in sparklers, mainly they are nitrates, chlorates or per chlorates.  Only oxidizers presence giving sparkling effect in Sparklers.

3. Binders.

• Dextrin.  
• Nitrocellulose.

Binders are a necessary component of sparklers, because the metal fuel and oxidizers will be useless without a way to bind them together into a paste.

Now you know the chemical parts of Sparklers. Let’s go on and overview sparklers types, forms, design, safety and the most famous celebrations with Sparklers.

The most popular sparkler is called ‘Roman Candle’. Despite its name, this sparkler is also coming from China. They became very popular during the Italian Renaissance. Roman Candle ejected one or more starს or exploding shells. Another type of Sparklers, known as ‘Morning Glory’, consists of a long, thin paper tube with composition and attached to a wooden rod using bright colored tissue paper and ribbon. One more type of sparklers is ‘Bottle Rocket’, which is a small skyrocket. User can place the stick in an empty bottle and ignite the rocket engine. Due to the safety reason, ‘Bottle Rocket’ are under a strong regulation in most of the countries. One more, very nice sparkler is ‘Crossett’, shell containing several large stars that travel a short distance before breaking apart into stars, creating grid-like effect. 

Sparklers are very popular on ‘Guy Fawkes Night’ in Great Britain, on the 5^th of November, used mostly by children at this bonfire and fireworks displays. Sparklers are also often used on Independence Day, the 4^th of July, in USA. They are the most popular on Indian festival of light Diwali.

 As we have already noticed, due to the big injure risk and safety generally, sparklers are under the very strong regulations in most of the countries, also are banned in several ones. Safety experts recommend that adults ensure children, who are using sparklers are properly warned, supervised and wearing non-flammable clothing. Sparklers are also capable of accidentally initiating wildfires.

So, everybody must stay safe, when use the Sparklers.