Sugar Stars

Here's a collection of firework star recipes using common sugar (sucrose) as the fuel source. This approach is impractical for commercial pyrotechnics due to being so sensitive to moisture and heat. But for homemade fireworks it has several advantages. It doubles as a binder and is water soluble so there's no need for noxious solvents. It's also widely available and cheap.

None of these use any additional chlorine donors other than potassium perchlorate, which is also the main oxidizer. This means that the colors are all on the pale end of the spectrum but there are fewer ingredients required.

These compositions can be moistened and formed into stars by either pressing or cutting. If you get the consistency right you can even roll them by hand. Be careful not to add too much water or it turns soupy fast. You want to add just enough for a damp sand consistency. It usually takes 2-4 days to fully dry depending on the humidity and size.

Colors can be tuned using different sources and ratios of barium, copper, potassium, and strontium. These were just the supplies I had enough of on hand to experiment with. The addition of a strong chlorine donor should significantly increase the saturation for most of these colors.

One quirk of these colors is that strontium nitrate + copper oxychloride don't seem to mix in the flame the way I expected. They produced a reddish flame at the base with blue tips. The entire flame appears like a cold white from far away. This made it difficult to get a better violet/purple than potassium nitrate, which is quite pale itself and burns more aggressively.