Firework (pyrotechnics) was invented by the Chinese almost a thousand years ago as a traditional part of Spring Festival's (Chinese New Year's) celebrations. Creating firework is a complex job of making a mixture with variety of components containing oxidizers such as potassium chlorate, potassium nitrate, potassium perchlorate, sodium nitrate, sodium chlorate, strontium nitrate; fuels like charcoal, or sugar, and sulfer, and colour producers, mainly metal powder, metal oxides and metal salts that produce different colours during burning flame. Sodium -, for example, orange-yellow, lithium - medium red, strontium - intense red, potassium - light pinkish violet, rubidium - violet-red, calcium - orange, copper - blue, barium - apple green, cesium - purple, iron - gold, titanium - and Beryllium - white.
Although there are different types of fireworks, the chemistry reactions of firework could be simple by ignite fuel (gunpowder, or black powder, a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal (carbon), and sulfur to form nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases and potassium sulphide. Colour producers, such as aluminium or magnesium powder is heated at a high temperature in the presence of oxygen to create white bright and shimmering sparks:
2Mg(g) + O2(g) -->
2MgO(s) + energy (light and heat)
4Al(s) + 3O2(g) —> 2Al2O3(s) + energy (light and heat)