The production of less harmful and less toxic sparklers in an experiment for school students
In this article, a new and simple way of producing sparklers is presented as a school experiment. These sparklers are more environmentally friendly and less health threatening than sparklers produced with existing preparation methods. The problem of conventional sparklers is the toxicity of barium n...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Chemistry Teacher International |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/cti-2020-0012 |
| _version_ | 1811187418916716544 |
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| author | Scheid Michael Rusan Magdalena Klapötke Thomas M. Schwarzer Stefan |
| author_facet | Scheid Michael Rusan Magdalena Klapötke Thomas M. Schwarzer Stefan |
| author_sort | Scheid Michael |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this article, a new and simple way of producing sparklers is presented as a school experiment. These sparklers are more environmentally friendly and less health threatening than sparklers produced with existing preparation methods. The problem of conventional sparklers is the toxicity of barium nitrate, which is used as the oxidizer. The substitution of this oxidizer with strontium nitrate and also the reduction of the weight proportion makes the new mixture less dangerous and less toxic. Various tests for the categorization of high-energetic materials show that the newly developed sparklers are not classified as explosives. Furthermore, the tests demonstrate that the newly developed sparklers are not as dangerous as commercial sparklers. Due to their lower health risk, these new sparklers are well suited for use in school education. In addition, expenditure for this experiment is low and integrating it into the upper secondary level curriculum is easy. Sparklers are an impressive example of redox reactions from everyday life. The experiment is a best-practice application for chemistry education, incorporating current results of chemistry research. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T14:03:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d6c43fecc92a42b586f90bd5ddb595fa |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2569-3263 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T14:03:03Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Chemistry Teacher International |
| spelling | doaj.art-d6c43fecc92a42b586f90bd5ddb595fa2022-12-22T04:20:02ZengDe GruyterChemistry Teacher International2569-32632021-02-013328529410.1515/cti-2020-0012The production of less harmful and less toxic sparklers in an experiment for school studentsScheid Michael0Rusan Magdalena1Klapötke Thomas M.2Schwarzer Stefan3Department of Chemistry, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Butenandtstraße 5-13, 81377München, GermanyDepartment of Chemistry, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Butenandtstraße 5-13, 81377München, GermanyDepartment of Chemistry, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Butenandtstraße 5-13, 81377München, GermanyChemistry Education, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 18, 72076Tübingen, GermanyIn this article, a new and simple way of producing sparklers is presented as a school experiment. These sparklers are more environmentally friendly and less health threatening than sparklers produced with existing preparation methods. The problem of conventional sparklers is the toxicity of barium nitrate, which is used as the oxidizer. The substitution of this oxidizer with strontium nitrate and also the reduction of the weight proportion makes the new mixture less dangerous and less toxic. Various tests for the categorization of high-energetic materials show that the newly developed sparklers are not classified as explosives. Furthermore, the tests demonstrate that the newly developed sparklers are not as dangerous as commercial sparklers. Due to their lower health risk, these new sparklers are well suited for use in school education. In addition, expenditure for this experiment is low and integrating it into the upper secondary level curriculum is easy. Sparklers are an impressive example of redox reactions from everyday life. The experiment is a best-practice application for chemistry education, incorporating current results of chemistry research.https://doi.org/10.1515/cti-2020-0012green chemistryredox reactionschool student experimentsparkler |
| spellingShingle | Scheid Michael Rusan Magdalena Klapötke Thomas M. Schwarzer Stefan The production of less harmful and less toxic sparklers in an experiment for school students Chemistry Teacher International green chemistry redox reaction school student experiment sparkler |
| title | The production of less harmful and less toxic sparklers in an experiment for school students |
| title_full | The production of less harmful and less toxic sparklers in an experiment for school students |
| title_fullStr | The production of less harmful and less toxic sparklers in an experiment for school students |
| title_full_unstemmed | The production of less harmful and less toxic sparklers in an experiment for school students |
| title_short | The production of less harmful and less toxic sparklers in an experiment for school students |
| title_sort | production of less harmful and less toxic sparklers in an experiment for school students |
| topic | green chemistry redox reaction school student experiment sparkler |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/cti-2020-0012 |
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