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A study of thermal and safety behaviour of potassium nitrate in flash powder after surface modification for prevention of self-decomposition due to hygroscopic effect

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Abstract

One of the major causes of explosion in fireworks industries is self-heating due to decomposition of chemicals during handling. This may be due to the absorption of water from the surrounding air which causes self-heating decomposition while mixed with Aluminium and thus starts to self-ignite. Flash powder is one of the main raw materials for making crackers which contains Potassium nitrate has more hygroscopic effect. In this work, to reduce the hygroscopic effect on Oxidisers, surface modification is done by coating the surfactant over Oxidisers. Spray drier is used to disperse the emulsified Oil in water from Oxidiser. SEM and FTIR images are used to confirm the coating. After coating, thermal analysis, sensitivity tests and flame analysis has been carried out. The results show that coated oxidiser can be used in fireworks industries safely without affecting the quality. The residue was also tested by SEM EDAX to confirm the elements.

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Acknowledgements

There is no funding for this work. But, the authors thank the Management and the Principal of Mepco Schlenk Engineering College for motivating to conduct this research work at our Institution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi, Tamilnadu, India

    A. Azhagurajan & S. Ajay

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  1. A. Azhagurajan
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  2. S. Ajay
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Contributions

All the authors contributed to the study conception and design. Dr. A. Azhagurajan gave the idea of this research work. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Mr. S. Ajay. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Ajay. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to A. Azhagurajan.

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Azhagurajan, A., Ajay, S. A study of thermal and safety behaviour of potassium nitrate in flash powder after surface modification for prevention of self-decomposition due to hygroscopic effect. J Therm Anal Calorim (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-024-13250-0

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