Prevention of Self Decomposition in Pyrotechnic Wet Mixtures by Replacing Aluminium with Boron

Abstract

AbstractIn fireworks industries, water‐added mixtures like tip mixtures, and aerial star pellet coatings are susceptible to self‐decomposition because aluminium readily reacts with water that is used with them. While adding water to the tip mixture, the aluminium undergoes hydration and forms an oxide. It also liberates heat and hydrogen gas, which leads to an explosion. Similarly, the star pellets coated with aluminium also had the same problem. To avoid the hazard due to self‐decomposition, partial replacement of aluminium powder helps in the reduction of workplace accidents/injuries. Recently, researchers used boron as a substituent for aluminium in dry mixtures such as flash powder composition. In this work, the use of aluminium in the wet mixtures is gradually replaced with boron. The thermal analysis and the decomposition tests were conducted for the boron‐blended wet mixtures. The performance characteristics of boron‐blended tip mixtures and star pellets were evaluated to determine the optimum level of replacement to sustain the quality with improved safety.