Among the most common ingredients is a solvent, usually ether, the best source of which is engine-starting fluid. To extract the ether, cookers will turn the cans upside down, bleed off the propellant and then punch holes in the can. Lithium batteries also are used. The preferred brand seems to be Energizers but any lithium battery will work as a catalyst. Exposure to oxygen will cause lithium to ignite fairly rapidly.
Cookers often soak their lithium in a solvent to avoid oxygen exposure.
It is not uncommon to find a lab packaged in a Coleman-type cooler. Anhydrous ammonia is often siphoned into propane tanks for storage. Propane tanks are unsuitable for anhydrous because the chemical will corrode the fittings and weaken the seam on the tank. Anhydrous ammonia will freeze-burn skin on contact and should be handled with extreme caution. As one might imagine, the substance has a very strong smell of ammonia.