So, are you a chemistry dork, pyromaniac, or anyone else that likes to see nifty explosions from the safety of your own backyard? If so, you've come to the right place.
This is about how to make a fun and easy explosive/flamethrower with only drano and aluminum.
This is probably the safest explosion you'll get from me, and probably the simplest to perform. It basically involves putting aluminum foil in a bottle, drowning it with Drano, and letting the reaction proceed.
Materials
-Drano (easily bought at a local supermarket or anywhere that sells drain uncloggers)
-Aluminum foil (or anything aluminum, but aluminum foil is sufficient)
-A plastic bottle with a cap (soda bottle or bottled water bottle will do. Wine bottle with cork is more fun.)
-SOMEPLACE OUTSIDE (if you do these inside, you will probably light something important (e.g. your house) on fire)
-OPTIONAL: butane lighter (matches and cigarette lighters aren't recommended because they are too short-range to be entirely safe)
Step 1: Take the aluminum foil and stuff it into your container of choice. Put a significant amount in, maybe filling it about 1/3 or 1/4 full. Additionally, you can tear the aluminum foil up into smaller pieces instead of crumpling it. This creates more surface area, which makes the reaction go faster.
Step 2: Submerge the aluminum foil with Drano drain unclogger as best you can (the aluminum may float to some extent). Don't worry, nothing will happen immediately. The reaction is pretty slow.
Step 3: (Optional) NOTE: THIS STEP IS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS! YOU COULD BURN OFF YOUR HAND. I RECOMMEND YOU WEAR GLOVES. Put the cap/cork on the bottle and wait a few minutes, probably 5. You should see some fog on the inside of the bottle in places, after a bit of time. This is hydrogen gas forming. Also, the aluminum and Drano mixture should begin bubbling. When you see a significant amount of gas, you can open the bottle quickly and light the hydrogen gas with your butane lighter (note that this could be dangerous if you don't have significant distance). When I did this, it "popped" inside the bottle.
When this is done, you can re-close the container and continue the experiment, if there is sufficient aluminum and drano (there probably is). Anyway, be careful. What this step does is show you prematurely that there is hydrogen in the bottle.
Step 4: Now, you just sit here and wait. What's going to happen is that after an extended period of time (I'm not sure how long; it probably depends on how much aluminum and Drano you originally had and the size of your container), the hydrogen gas will build up inside the container and do something to the container itself. When I did this with a soda bottle, the cap was on tight, so it blew a hole in the bottle of the container, launching the bottle upwards and getting Drano all over my deck. I've heard it's more fun with a wine bottle: the cork pops off, and if you're nearby with a lighter, you can catch the hydrogen gas as it escapes with the lighter, making a flamethrower. NOTE THAT THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS AND ALMOST BURNED OFF A FRIEND'S EYEBROWS. Keep the wine bottle on a table or some other surface outside above ground level, so you can sit below it and light it from below while keeping it steady with your other hand.
What's going on here?
The chemical process here is a very simple one. You have a redox reaction, the exchange of electrons, and then a complex ion forms. Drano contains sodium hydroxide, which is the primary reducing agent in this reaction:
6 H2O + 2 Al(s) + 2 OH- --> 2 Al(OH)4-(aq) + 3 H2 (g)
Hence, hydrogen gas forms. Likewise, I believe the reaction is exothermic, or releases heat. If you feel the bottom near the liquid, it should feel somewhat warm.
Yes, I did learn this in AP Chemistry. God bless College Board.