With the Fourth of July and American Independence Day on the horizon, a somehow topical post seemed in order. Having already examined the chemical compounds that give fireworks their colours in a previous graphic, I decided to examine another important firework component here: the first chemical ...

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Bangs, Crackles & Whistles

The obvious place to start is the bangs of fireworks when they explode into bursts of colour. These can be produced simply by compactedgunpowder, which if suitably confined can give a decent result. However, it’s more common for the ignitionof a specific explosive mixture to be utilised. This ...

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The colours in fireworks stem from a wide variety of metal compounds – particularly metal salts. ‘Salt’ as a word conjures up images of the normal table salt you probably use every day; whilst this is one type of salt (sodium chloride), in chemistry ‘salt’ refers to any compound thatcontains ...

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Element Infographics

This latest graphic looks at the elements of Group 6. ‘Chalcogens’ is an IUPAC accepted name for Group 6. The term chalcogen itself comes from the greek word ‘chalcos‘, and roughly translates as ‘ore-former’.

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