In Andy Weir's The Martian one of the characters uses a mixture of sugar and liquid oxygen as an IED. Loads of energy in sugar. Glycerin is also quite energy dense. I used to do chemistry demos for high school chem classes and the potassium permanganate and glycerin demo was always a spectacle.
For a lot of propulsion kinds of reactions you can mix a good oxidizer (liquid oxygen, high percentage hydrogen peroxide, fuming nitric acid) with any organic solid. Hotdogs, sugar, fat, or just anything really made mostly of carbon.
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In Andy Weir's The Martian one of the characters uses a mixture of sugar and liquid oxygen as an IED. Loads of energy in sugar. Glycerin is also quite energy dense. I used to do chemistry demos for high school chem classes and the potassium permanganate and glycerin demo was always a spectacle.
A similar lab demo I recall also is the gummy bear dropped into a test tube of molten potassium chlorate.
Rather spicy reaction ensues.
Also a good reaction. Nice orange/pink flame.
For a lot of propulsion kinds of reactions you can mix a good oxidizer (liquid oxygen, high percentage hydrogen peroxide, fuming nitric acid) with any organic solid. Hotdogs, sugar, fat, or just anything really made mostly of carbon.