IIf you have been wondering how to make purple fire, then you have come to the right place. There are many ways to make purple fire.
Today, I will be showing you my personal favorite and most effective ways using simple items you can find at home at the end of the article.
Making Purple Fire – Chemistry Project
Ingredients to make Purple Fire
1) Salts of Potassium Chloride in powdered form
2) Red Emergency Flare that contains Strontium Nitrate
3) Fuels that produce a blue flame-like Alcohol-based Sanitizer, Ethanol, Lighter Fluid, Rubbing Alcohol, Propane, or Methanol
That’s it! Collect these supplies to make a purple flame.
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Directions to Make Purple Fire
Since purple color is not in the spectrum wavelength, it is a little tricky to produce the purple shade.
But as I said, we can still create purple color from the chemicals that produce the emission spectrum.
To get purple fire, we need to produce and combine red and violet flames. So, let us learn the easy and simple directions that produce a purple flame.
Step-1: As a first step, arrange a campfire set up using either coal or firewood in your room or backyard.
Step-2: For the second step, you need to add some amount of fuel to the campfire set up and light it up using matches. Then, let the fire grows up to one foot a distance upwards.
Note: Fuel is the key element while creating purple color fire because it dominates the yellow embers from the sodium salts of wood. Thus, it results in offering us a beautiful purple fire. In addition, fuel helps in burning with the invisible or blue flames and makes purple color visible to the human eye.
Step-3: The third step is to collect the powdery strontium from the flare! The emergency flare comes in a long cardboard tube accompanied by a striker at one end. And to remove the strontium powder, you need to peel off the cardboard material present on the opposite side to the striker part. Then, you can collect the revealed powdery substance, nothing but strontium into a bowl. Strontium powder is useful for making the purple color much more intense and visible clearly.
Step-4: In the fourth step, we are going to use a very little amount of strontium powder and the chemical salts of potassium chloride to create purple color. All you need to do is sprinkle the gathered materials one after the other over the tip of the fire embers slowly.
Note: Do not drop the chemicals in large quantities and collectively in the middle of the flame. Because this may cause unnecessary fire accidents with the sudden rise in the fire flare-ups.
Step-5: The fifth step is to check there are no harmful gases released because some chemicals are dangerous to people dealing with breathing issues. Continue to do the activity only the fumes released after the chemicals react with the fire are safe! If you feel you are suffocating with the fumes, just step away from the campfire and let the others do the activity and you just watch and enjoy!
Step-6: You land in the sixth step only when you feel it is safe to continue the activity! In the sixth step, drop the chemical powder i.e. potassium chloride slowly over the tip of the fire flames. Also, continue to add strontium powder and fuel in between to see the best results.
Results: The first and little addition of chemicals to the fire may not give many changes to the color of the fire. But still, you need to continue adding chemicals until you see the color change in the fire fumes. So, you must keep adding more and more chemical powders to change the color and make it visible.
Safety Tips
As you are dealing with a lot of chemicals and fire, it is mandatory to wear safety glasses and hand gloves that resist fire and chemical contact. Keep a fire suppressant for safety. We strongly advice you to try this at your backyard in safe conditions.
What chemicals burn purple?
Here are the other surprising chemicals that burn purple and its lighter and darker shades:
1) Cesium—Burns in Blue-Violet shade
2) Zirconium—Burns in pale red shade
3) Cadmium—Burns in bright brick red color it is dangerous to use
4) Rubidium—Burns in Reddish violet shade
5) Lithium—Burns in Crimpson Red color
6) Mercury—It is highly toxic and burns in Red shade
7) Calcium—Burns in Brick Red shade and is visible as purple under blue flames
8) Yttrium—Burns in Crimpson Red
How hot is purple fire?
Different color flames possess different degrees of temperature! So, the temperature change in fumes is the main characteristic that represents fuel temperature. As purple fire is the result of a combination of red fire and blue fire, it exhibits lesser temperature than blue fire. So, let us learn the temperatures of a variety of fuels that produce a purple flame.
Ethanol— 1920 °C or 3488 °F
Methanol— 1870 °C or 3398 °F
Propane— 1980 °C or 3596 °F (This temperature recorded in the presence of air)
In the case of black body radiations, the temperature of flames is calculated according to the color of the fire. Have a look at the temperatures of different color flames!
Orange-yellow shaded flames possess 1100 °C or 2012 °F
Deep red color flames exhibit 600-800 °C or 1112-1800 °F
Blue color ones lie in the range between 1400-1650 °C or 2600-3000 °F
White color fumes show 1300-1500 °C or 2400-2700 °F
Violet shade fumes reveal temperatures at 39400 °C or 71000 °F
How to make purple fire at home
There are two methods through which we can make purple fire easily at home. Let us see what they are:
Method-1: Making Wax Cup Cakes
1) Arrange a double boiler set up on the stove and put some old candle wax into it. Let the wax melts on medium flame.
2) Once the wax melts completely, add little amounts of desired chemical powder into it. You need to stir the wax and chemical powder well to avoid lumps formation.
3) Then, switch off the stove and pour the mixture into a mold or paper cup molds.
4) Let the mixture completely cools down. After cooling, the liquid mixture turns hard again in the shape of the mold you used.
5) Now, set up a campfire in your backyard and add these wax cupcakes one or two into the fire. You can see the beautiful purple flames from the fire.
Method-2: Soaking Wood in Chemicals
1) Gather some lightweight fire ingredients like wood, pine cones, scraps of lumber, etc.
2) Take some amount of water in a plastic container and add a tablespoon of your desired chemical compound into it.
3) Then, drop the wood fire materials into the chemical solution prepared. And let them soak for 24 hours.
4) After a day, remove the wood materials and allow them to dry completely. After drying completely, these wood materials are said chemically treated.
5) Now bring these chemically treated wood materials into a campfire.
6) The campfire releases the beautiful purple flames after a minute or a couple of minutes.