Can I grind sulfur in my ball mill without fear of explosion?

Question

I know that paper,wood, coal,starch and other dusts are explosive in certain concentrations in the air. Will Sulfur dust explode if there is a spark generated inside my ballmill? I use steel balls in my small ballmill, do I need to use a different grinding media?

Answer 1

I think sulfur milling is pretty safe. Fill the container up most of the way to avoid having excess oxygen in there, and NEVER mill any oxidizers in the same container or with the same media - trances of leftover sulfur could react and explode.



If you are using this milled sulfur for its most common purpose, always use non-sparking media such as lead to mill the final product. It also helps both the safety and quality to dampen it before milling :)



Edit: On second thought, agreed with m graham: there is no reason to make a lot of sparks if you don't need to. Ceramic is not safe for BP, though; I think it might be piezoelectric?

Answer 2

It should be relatively safe but i would suggest as the last person did to use a different media. I would suggest using something like-not sure what it is called exactly but i think they use it in pottery. oh it might be ceramic media. Hope this helps and dont blow ureself up with the black powder you are most likely making. =) have fun

Answer 3

You will be fine....no explosion possible under clean and normal conditions.