I recently obtained a liter of 99.9% isopropanol (aka isopropyl alcohol)
and discovered quite quickly that it burns extremely hot (it shattered a
glass dish I had previously used to burn 80-proof ethanol with no
problems), but quite slowly. I then tried filling a paper cylinder (wrapped
around a pencil and then covered in duct tape) with compactified powdered
KNO3, and poured some isopropanol into the cylinder. When ignited, the
nitrate oxidized the paper just fine... and the paper acted as a nice wick
for the alcohol... but they didn't seem to burn *together*. Does anyone
have ideas for how to fix this?
Thank you!
-Abraham
(Also coming soon, related to this topic: a question related to
isopropanol-sucrose-KNO3 mixtures)
