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Have you ever seen blue fireworks?

December 16,2022

Fireworks are always a part of the festive season, what kind of fireworks have you seen? Red? Green? Orange? Gold? These are probably some of the most common colors of fireworks, but have you ever seen blue fireworks? I’m sure most people would say no. So, today we are going to learn more about blue fireworks.

Among fireworks, blue is very rare indeed. It is almost never found in the small combinations of fireworks available for personal firing.

Why wouldn’t blue be popular in the personal-firing category?

Perhaps we can find the answer from a chemical point of view.

The explosion of fireworks is actually a rapid release of energy in a redox reaction. The sound and light effects of all fireworks rely on chemical reactions. In this rapid chemical reaction, there are two important “recipes” that are fuel and oxidiser. In traditional Chinese black powder, charcoal and sulphur act as the fuel, while potassium nitrate is the oxidising agent.

Another major difference between traditional firecrackers and modern fireworks is the structure. Traditional firecrackers simply require a tube filled with powder to produce an explosion in situ when the fuse is ignited. Modern fireworks, on the other hand, require a much more complex structure. They first have to be lifted into the air with the help of a firing charge and then explode at a specific height with a time-delay fuse to produce a colorful effect.

In summary, there is only one type of firework that satisfies the above criteria: Display shells. The structure of the Display shells is divided into a complex structure of firing charge, delayed fuze, bursting charge and effect charge. The launch charge lifts the main body into the air, then the delayed fuse detonates the middle part of the bursting charge and the effect charge is dispersed in the air. The effect charge then burns in the air, creating a brilliantly colored effect.

The effect stars are mainly powder and come from a variety of different metal compounds. They are excited at high temperatures and emit specific wavelengths. As an example, strontium carbonate produces a red effect; the green colouring agent is barium nitrate; blue is copper oxide; yellow is sodium chlorofluoride; and purple is strontium carbonate plus copper oxide.

So the question is, the blue stain is copper oxide, so why is it so rare?

First of all it we have to know: when metal salts etc. are exposed to high temperatures, some chemical changes are produced. ”Luminophores” are produced. These luminophores are excited when they encounter high temperatures, and the electrons in them then meander back to the ground state, producing light of characteristic wavelengths. For there to be blue fireworks, they have to come from the CuCl spectrum. So, to have a blue effect, you need to have a copper compound and a chlorine-rich firework flame. Doing this is very challenging. It should be that when the above conditions are present, the flame temperature must be kept at 200 to 300 degrees in order to produce a pure blue effect. If the temperature is high, the blue luminous body is extremely easily destroyed by an excessively high flame. If the temperature is too low, stray colors will be produced and the colour will not be pure.

To improve technology and sustainability, fireworkers continue to innovate and breed more and more new products. From daylight fireworks to biodegradable materials, from new formulations to better designs …… Every detail reflects people’s pursuit of beauty and increased environmental awareness. I hope the fireworks industry is getting better and better!