Rocket Oxidizer: Potassium Perchlorate ( KClO₄ )

Potassium perchlorate is a less commonly used oxidizer in amateur rocketry; however, propellants that use it are very energy dense.  It has been successfully used as a substitute for potassium nitrate with common asphalt fuel to make JATO booster rockets for the NAVY beginning in 1942.¹ KClO₄ is also used in some basic whistle mix formulas, usually with sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate.

Advantages:

• High oxygen yield, 46%
• Fast burn rate
• Stable with sulfur

Disadvantages:

• Low gas producer
• High smoke content
• Increasingly harder to purchase

Cautions:

Finely powdered potassium perchlorate 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.

See Potassium Perchlorate MSDS

Other Uses:

KClO₄ is used in many flash powder compositions due to its abundance of oxygen, and relative stability compared to potassium chlorate (KClO₃).

1. Encyclopedia Astronautica, Compsite Solid Propellants, Andre Bedard, (10/8/2009)