Research And Preparation Of Color Flame Candles

Color flame candles can provide colored flames when it burns. As an ornament in our lives, color flame candles have attracted more and more attentions. From the late1970s to now, the research about color flame candles have made great progress, but there are still some weaknesses in candlewick and candlewood, which prohibits the extensive use of the candles.As to the existent problems, the two issues, the candlewick handling and candlewood formula choosing, were studied in this paper.Firstly, the factors affecting flame color were studied. The experimental results showed that cotton cellulose was the best because it was low in lignin and hemicellulose. The cotton has to be handled in sodium hydroxide solution to remove the cerolipoid. The optimal concentration of sodium hydroxide solution was5%. Ammonium chloride with hydrochloric solution was used to remove sodium salt and calcium salt and the optimal concentration of mixed solution were ammonium chloride of3%and hydrochloric of2%. If coloring agents were added into candlewick, it would cooperate with coloring agents in candle body. It was found that the chloride was the most suitable coloring agent for candlewick and the optimal concentration were as follows: lithium chloride of20%, sodium chloride of20%, potassium chloride of13%, cupric chloride of25%, boric acid of4%. The ammonium nitrate solution was used oxidation accelerator and the suitable concentration was4%.The flammability, compactibility and flame color were investigated based on the analysis of candle body. It was proved that trimethyl citrate was the optimal main combustion agent. The coloring agent for candle body was acetate and the optimal content was in the range of6%-13%, Stearamide was used a mold release agent and the content was from2%to5%. Stearyl alcohol as a luminous flame was mixed in candle body and the content was less than2%. The spectral intensity and purity of flame color were characterized by fiber-optic spectrometer and satisfactory results were obtained.