AN+acetic acid?

[S. Toppholzer]

Just read a patent wherein the inventor talks about a an/acetic acid mixture which would be detonable with a #8 detonator.
I thought that only AN and acetic anhydride would be a usable explosive. I serached the Forum a couple of times with different search strings but came up with nothing.
Does anyone knows if AN-acetic acid would be a feasible explosive?
I've got one liter of it left - this would be the only usage for it I think.

[DBSP]

What patent?

This would allso interest me since I have some glacial acetic acid (0.5-0.8L) and lots of AN.

[vulture]

Sounds possible. Glacial Acetic acid is flammable, so this would be a kind of ANFO. Only bad point I see is that they are both hygroscopic.

[S. Toppholzer]

DBSP:
I found it on the forum ftp - it's a patent of a FAE-bomb which uses a core of a heaving explosive instead of a fast high explosive, this mixture was suggested therein but no detailed info was given.

[Mr Cool]

It should work, like ANFO but smellier.
I reckon something like 85% AN, 15% acid would be OK.

[DBSP]

I tried a detonating 520g of ANAA today. I mixed the AN and 12% glacial acetic acid and then added 100ml of fine saw dust with a very low density to reduce the over all density. At the end the density was about 1.04 g/cc. I poured it into a glass jar and inserted the cap made out of a shotgun shell full with moderately pressed AP. Lit the fuse and threw it into a river. It just made a thump I've got the audio but it's nothing impressive. I doubt it detonated. It might work with heavier confinement and a larger booster but it's not really worth it, glacial acetic acid doesn't smell very nice.

It would be interesting to find out the real ratio though.

[S. Toppholzer]

OK. I've found the patent. It wasn't about FAE's though.
It's patent 3,279,965 (Ammonium Nitrate Explosive Compositions):

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">1 kilogram of slightly crushed crystallized foamed ammonium nitrate (density not packed 0.654, density when packed 0.71, adsorption coefficient for gas oil 10%, well dired, water content 0.17%) is mixed with 70 grams of acetic acid and after 1 hour's rest the product is filled into shells, consisting of cardboard tubes having a diameter of 35 mm. Complete explosion is obtained with a No. 8 primer.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">Makes me wonder if the person really meant "explosion" or if that was to be understood as "detonation".