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Potassium Permanganate is a very powerful oxidising agent, and will even oxidise a triol.
After the reactants has reached the necessary activation energy, the pile of Potassium Permanganate combusts into a very hot flame (exceeding 1000 degrees Celsius).
It is because of this that this mixture can be used to ignite Thermite
When you add glycerol (glycerin) to potassium permanganate (KMnO4), it ignites after the gycerol gets absorbed. Apologies for the in and out focus. My camera has auto focus on and it was going funky for some reason.
*NOTE: This reaction produces a lot of smoke. Do it under a fume hood or well ventilated area. (We almost set off the smoke detectors first time we did it.)
"Experiment" #4 in a lecture about pyrotechnics given to high-school students. Here is shown a sample of KMnO4 (potassium permanganate) with some Aluminum powder being ignited by a drop of glycerol (glycerin). Notice the long time of it takes from smoke rising to burning - it was a very cold day.
The reaction between manganate(VII) and propan-1,2,3-triol is slow to start but becomes very exothermic. manganate(VII) is a powerful oxidising agent. It can be used as an option to start a thermit reaction.
