Rocket Oxidizer: Potassium Chlorate ( KClO₃ )

Potassium chlorate has a limited use in amateur rocketry due to its instability.  Despite the dangers, whistle mix compositions often use KCLO₃ with either sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate as the fuel.  KCLO₃ so readily donates its oxygen, that when mixed with a small percentage of many sensitizers or impurities, it becomes explosive.

Advantages:

• Fast burn rate
• Easy to manufacture

Disadvantages:

• Low gas producer
• Quite sensitive
• Increasingly harder to purchase
• Unstable with sulfur

Cautions:

Finely powdered potassium chlorate 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.  Metal fuel/KClO₃ mixtures are extremely sensitive to heat, friction and ESD.  Pyrotechnic mixtures containing KCLO₃ and sulfur have an increased risk of spontaneous ignition due to the chlorate reacting with sulfur-acids.

See Potassium Chlorate MSDS

Other Interesting Uses:

Potassium chlorate is commonly used in match heads.