Challenge of bringing Blue fireworks

I want my fireworks to be colorful—but that is not as easy as it sounds. Blue fireworks, especially, are very complicated to manufacture. We need to use copper, or to be more precise, cupric oxide. It is important that the temperature is not too high when the firework explodes as otherwise, the chemical reaction does not work. It must not be hotter than 1200 degrees Celsius; but in most cases, temperatures of 2000 degrees or more are generated. Also, the blue should not be too dark. It must be visible against the dark night sky. Manufacturers work is to optimize the formulation for blue fireworks.

Whether it’s red, orange, gold, green or even blue: They need a range of chemical elements to produce our pyrotechnics. They use strontium to create red, barium to create green, and aluminium to create white. But these are not the only components. They need other substances to control the brightness and the combustion period. And what exactly these substances are, that’s the trade secret. Every manufacturer has his own unique formulation. It will take many years to acquire the chemical knowledge that to need work.

To develop new formulations and to produce creative light effects and spectacular explosions, they need to know how the state of chemical elements can change. Chemistry is my passion! Unfortunately, in many cases, you only find out if the effects are going to work when the explosion occurs.

They spend from three to six months working on new formulations and we make the fire- works and firecrackers all by hand. After just 30 minutes, it’s all over. Their work literally vanishes into thin air. For me, it’s always an indescribable feeling when the people clap and cheer after the final firework has exploded. For me Chemistry is my passion and Pyrotechnics is one of my favourite area and worked on that area during my post graduation days in the labs. This Diwali reminded me these things and hence this blog.