Rocket Oxidizer: Potassium Permanganate ( KMnO4 ) [ENG]

1. Potassium permanganate is a purple crystalline powder commonly used as a disinfectant and in water treatment.  It is often available in hardware stores but is becoming increasingly hard to find over the counter due to changing shipping regulations.  KMnO4 is a very strong oxidizer, and it has limited use in amateur rocketry due to its instability.  However, it has been used in some whistle mixes.  In pyrotechnics, it has been replaced with similar but more stable potassium perchlorate.

2. Advantages:

• Fast burn rate
• Over the counter (for now)

3. Disadvantages:

• Low gas producer
• Quite sensitive
• Increasingly harder to purchase
• Messy
• More expensive than similar alternatives (KClO4)
• Toxic

4. Cautions:

Finely powdered potassium permanganate can pose an extreme flash powder explosion hazard when combined with a high mesh magnesium powder, magnalium powder or aluminum powder fuel.  Homogeneous mixtures of a very high mesh are known to rapidly deflagrate and possibly detonate with VODs approaching 3,000 fps, over twice the speed of sound.

5. Other Interesting Uses:

• Water Treatment.
• Disinfectant.