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Draft:Yellow powder

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  • Comment: The Tenny Davis reference is is good, with substantial content. Curt Wentrup reference does not mention this substance. Royal Society Of Chemistry, although it is on YouTube is OK as from reputable organisation, should mention the speaker. APC Forum is not reliable as it is user content. E. Fire's work is copied substantially here, but is released under a compatible license. Unless you are the same writer as the pseudonymous "E. Fire" you should be crediting the source. E. Fire's work is a preprint, and so also not counted as reliable. It looks as if there is more references available. So if you include them it should make the draft acceptable. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 01:34, 7 July 2024 (UTC)

Yellow powder is a fast-burning, pyrotechnic mixture of potassium nitrate, potassium carbonate and sulfur. Early records indicate an alchemic use back in the mid-1600.[1], making it co-existant to the much slower burning, but centuries-older gunpowder. Judging by the apparent detonation velocity of "Yellow Powder" and the first records of it, it appears to be the second high explosive substance known to mankind; only being pre-dated by fulminating gold[2]. Despite this centuries-old knowledge of the mixture, the exact mechanism of it's explosive properties are still unknown[3]

Though different mixtures also seem to explode, a popular composition seems to be 55% KNO3, 27% K2CO3 and 18% S (by mass)[4]. Research suggests that the exact composition rate is not as important, as different mixtures around a composition of 3/2/1 show comparable explosive properties. Even a mixture of 1/1/1 showed a reasonable detonation time compared to a 3/2/1 mixture.[5]

Currently, there are three main theories regarding the mechanism of action: the formation and ignition of polysulfides, a reduction of nitrate to nitrite and/or the formation of sulfur nitride. Another possible theory would be catastrophic nitrate reduction.[5]

References

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  1. ^ Davis, Tenney L. (1949-01-01). "Pulvis Fulminans Tenney L. Davis". Chymia. 2: ii–110. doi:10.2307/27757126. ISSN 0095-9367. JSTOR 27757126.
  2. ^ Wentrup, Curt (2019-08-13). "Fulminating Gold and Silver". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 58 (42): 14800–14808. doi:10.1002/anie.201906356. ISSN 1433-7851. PMID 31161624.
  3. ^ Royal Society Of Chemistry (2013-05-17). Free Range Chemistry 35 - Yellow Powder. Retrieved 2024-07-05 – via YouTube.
  4. ^ "Yellow powder". APC Forum. 2006-11-02. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
  5. ^ a b Fire, E. (2024-07-05). "Experimental Observations on the Mysterious Explosions from 'Yellow Powder' to enable Yet More Speculation". doi:10.5281/ZENODO.12665806. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)