Labrador pup wrote:
I am not convinced by so-called "liquid bombs". Hydrogen peroxide is a source of oxygen which can help substances burn, but a wet mass of starch is not going to burn. Different story if it was dry powder. What was used as the detonator,and what would the explosion have been like with just the detonator and an empty bottle?
Hydrogen peroxide is a strong oxidizing agent and will react with any reducing agent. More often than not the oxidation-reduction reaction is highly exothermic (i.e. gives off a lot of heat), proceeds very fast and liberates a fair amount of gas. If the reducing agent is also flamable you have a veritable explosion on your hands. As a young aspirant chemist (I'm a real one now) one of our favourite "bombs" consisted of mixing potassium hypochlorite (strong oxidant) with hydrocarbon-based brake fluid (reductant). The explosion and the concomitant flame is something to behold
I saw first-hand what it did when the reagents were allowed to mix inside a sealed steel pipe
Just a note to all who feel that it's inappropriate to mention this on a public forum, it's public domain knowledge, usually known to all 12 to 14 year olds who pay attention in their science class.