KNO3 is water-soluble, so you can wash it out of the mixture and recrystallize to isolate. The charcoal is insoluble and the sulfur only very slightly water-soluble. You can separate these two by dissolving the sulfur in cardbon disulfide, benzene or toluene, leaving behind the carbon. Check the MSDS sheets for benzene (a carcinogen) and other solvents for sulfur and handle accordingly.
You can also extract the sulfur by sublimation, preferably in vacuo.How to isolate ingredients from a gunpowder sample?
Hi sandi: I love these problems where I apply my knowledge to the solution of a problem I haven't encountered before. As I recall, gunpowder is a mixture of S/C/KNO3. So you first extract with water to remove the ionic KNO3 (remove H2O from KNO3 using an evaporating dish). Dry residue on vac line and then extract with carbon disulphide (CS2; an evil smelling solvent!). Sulfur (as S8) is fairly soluble in CS2; vac down on rotary evaporator in fumehood. Carbon as powdered graphite is completely unreactive and will be the remaining solid. drp
PS: I concede the points to Mr bdwolfhound (but he does have a lot): beaten by 4 mins!
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