TheChemist

Used as an oxidiser, the oxidizing part of Pb3O4 ([Pb(II)O]2Pb(IV)O2) is the Pb(IV).
I guess the Pb(IV) is stabilized in this compound as compared to pure Pb(IV)O2 that is a strong oxidizer.
PbO2 will ignite fx. red phosphorus and hydrogensulfide (and most likely a lot of other substances) on contact.

I have now tried the most well known way to produce Pb3O4, that is heating PbO on an iron plate at 450C to oxidize the lead further. ( I used a spoon on a gas burner)
For some reason this did not work as it was supposed to .
Maybe the burner removed all the oxygen needed for the process.
By the way, Pb3O4 is really (PbO)2PbO2, is there any particular reason for using Pb3O4 and not PbO.
When I tested it in the lab they colour the flame in the same way when burned.
I will keep looking, and return if I find anything useful.

Does anyone know how to make lead tetraoxide? I tryed to mix it up with NaOH but nothing happened. Anything i am missing?

thnx

Before I dig into all of my books, is it the Pb3O4 you are interested in? (This is red and has been used as colour in paint) or the PbO2, a powerful oxidizer that can be used in matches together with red phosphorus.

There are several good reasons for not using the stoichiometric mixture (given by the math) for this reaction.
First of all this mixture is considered an explosive!
Second; the main areas of (peaceful) use are:

Smoke screens:
Incomplete combustion will give more smoke.

Solid state rocket fuel:
The fuel should be easy to cast and you do not want the fuel to damage the rocket by exploding or burning with too high a temperature.

From Richard Nakka's Experimental Rocketry Web Site: http://members.aol.c...on/sucrose.html

"The 65/35 (sucrose/nitrate) ratio has proven to give the best overall performance combined with acceptable casting qualities. Theoretically, the highest specific impulse is delivered at a 66/34 ratio, although the standard 65/35 ratio tends to be used by most experimentalists. There are three reasons for this:

The propellant characterization data has been obtained mainly for the 65/35 ratio
The performance difference is slight (about 1%).
The combustion temperature rises sharply with increased O/F ratio. At the 65/35 ratio, steel nozzles suffer no erosion, as there is an adequate margin between the theoretical flame temperature (1450C) and the melting point of steel (approx. 1500C). At higher O/F ratios, this margin is reduced such that a small error in weighing during preparation could result in a heat damaged nozzle."