Pur Filters

This is an electrolytic cell for the production of sodium and potassium chlorate. Potassium chlorate alone is not explosive, but should be handled with care.

KClO3 is a powerful oxidizer useful for making a wide variety of combustibles. When combined with sugar, the mixture will deflagrate quickly without detonating. Combining with aluminum powder produces flash powder. Combining with paraffin and petroleum jelly produces a powerful plastic explosive commercially known as cheddite.

Materials:
Stainless steel cathode
Graphite anode
Glass jar
insulated wire
water
Potassium chloride (sodium free salt)
DC power supply
Coffee filters

Optional:
(to control for release of chlorine gas)
Bromothymol blue pH indicator
Hydrochloric acid

Amendments:
The graphite corrodes pretty quickly, a carbon electrode strip ordered online or pulled from a battery will work MUCH better.

A computer power supply (PSU) works much better than a battery charger, you jerry rig it to run without a motherboard by connecting the green wire on the ATX connector to any black wire. black wires go to the cathode red (5V) or yellow (12V) go to the cathode. If using 12V I recommend making two cells in series. If using a PSU, use thicker wires than the ones shown here. DO NOT PLUG IN A RIGGED PSU BEFORE CONFIGURING CELL! PSUs are designed to function only under a load, without a load the PSU can break in seconds.

Estimate the surface area of your anode, the optimum current density will be between 33 & 43 mA per square cm.

Assuming 50% efficiency (about what you get without monitoring pH). It takes about 5 Amp hours to make 2 grams of potassium chlorate. Or about 4.3 Amp hours for every gram of KCl converted to KClO3. Or 5.5 grams for every gram of NaCl converted.

DO NOT run the cell until all the chloride becomes chlorate. The anode will begin to oxidize when the chloride concentration drops below 90g/L.

For extraction of sodium refer to:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Campus/5361/chlorate/remove.html

Extraction of potassium chlorate:
While the cell is running, feel free to add more water and/or KCl. Often rust and carbon silt will collect at the bottom. after a while, small KClO3 crystals will begin to form in this sludge as well. Look close in hard lighting and you will see them sparkle a little.

When satasfied, remove the electordes and place the jar in the freezer until the temperature reaches 0C or 32F. Then remove and pour through the liquid through a filter. 2 coffee filters over a flower vase works really well, but pour slowly, too much water will rip the filter.

After you finish filtering, save the liquid to continue production. You will have to resaturate it with chloride.

The sludge left in your coffee filter (and your jar if you let the contents settle a bit while filtering) is now a mixture of carbon, iron oxide, potassium chlorate, and some potassium chloride.

Use just enough boiling water to disolve all the salts from this sludge. You can put the sludge in a jar and add boiling water until you can’t see those sparkling crystals anymore, or you can just guess. The solubility of the salts will be about 60g/100ml.

While this solution is still near boiling hot, filter it again and discard the remaining solids. then place the clean solution in the freezer again. After it chills, collect the crystals by filtering or by slowly pouring off the excess liquid. These crystals should be about about 99% potassium chlorate.

Potassium chlorate can be dried slowly, but sodium chlorate (being hygroscopic) has to be dried by boiling off the excess water. If you have the equipment, you can do this under a vacuum, otherwise, you have to heat it. If you use heat, be very careful and try to avoid letting anything flammable (like plastic, wood, or even aluminum) touch the chlorate. Above all, DO NOT overheat.

Visit http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Campus/5361/chlorate/chlorate.html for more details.

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Technorati Tags: anodic, cell, cheddite, chlorate, DIY, electrolysis, electrolytic, home, homemade, how, make, oxidation, potassium, sodium, to

Tags: anodic, cell, cheddite, chlorate, DIY, electrolysis, electrolytic, home, homemade, how, make, oxidation, potassium, sodium, to

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