PGDN (Propylene Glycol Di-Nitrate)

[nitric63]

It really seems that this explosive, propylene glycol dinitrate, should be used more. Propylene
glycol is pretty cheap, it can be had for low cost from the right type of antifreeze with only
a few percentage of impurities like dyes and water that could likely be removed. Anyway, my
experiences of making PGDN were with PG that was from a chem supplier which still was quite
cheap. Also it sounds as if it is easily detonable but still quite safe to handle based on mega's
information. Also, I've noticed no headache from it although it does seem somewhat volatile as
it has a nice sweet smell to it. Anyway onto my experiences with synthing it.

The first time I tried synthesizing it I was using concentrated nitric acid(around 95%) and
98% sulfuric acid. I don't remember the ratios but have them written somewhere. Anyway,
all was going well and the temperature wasn't rising much at all so I decided to increase the
rate of PG addition to the acids, all was going well but as I was adding some PG I gave the
syringe a bit too hard of a squeeze which put in more PG than I had meant to. The runaway
began really rapidly, took only a few seconds for it to start spewing NO2. Worse than that was
that the mixture ignited result in a jet of fire shooting something between 1ft and 2ft out of the
flask. I suppose this might be the result of PGDN rising upwards and staying at the surface
instead of sinking the way NG does.

The next attempt was with an NH4NO3 and H2SO4 mixture:
29g NH4NO3
75g 98% H2SO4
9g propylene glycol
I was more cautious on the addition and kept the temp under 10C until all the PG was added. I
THen removed fro mthe ice bath and allowed the temperature to rise to just over 15C in around
twelve minutes. I then dumped in 500ml of ice cold water, decanted, and then added bicarbonate
solution. Judginf by the volume of PGDN obtained and the density mega gives I got a yield of a bit
over 14g which is around 70% theoretical. I haven't gotten around to testing it though.

Does anyone have any idea as to what it's strength relative to say NG is and what the VOD is?
I also think it should make a good sensitizer to smaller AN charges since it is liquid yet less sensitive than
NG and thus safer to use for the purpose.

[pdb]

I suppose this might be the result of PGDN rising upwards and staying at the surface

You are wrong. NG does stay at the surface of the acides, but of course sinks in water.

That you got an oxydizing reaction with NOx emission by adding too much PG at a time is not surprising. However, that the PGDN ignited is far more amazing. I've never heard of such a thing with NG, which in case of uncontrolled temperature rise would either decompose and/or detonate, but not ignite.

[Jacks Complete]

The one time I tried playing like this, I got a really impressive reaction in a milk bottle that ended up like a volcano. I read up, and found it was just way too much water in the Nitric.

Basically, I was using 2M stuff, with 98% Sulphuric, and glycerol/glycerine, I forget which. When it failed, I dumped it into a milk bottle. It failed a few times. I looked up, and realised the contents of the bottle were reacting, so moved it rapidly into the garden. The flames were pretty tall, very red, and I was sure the bottle would blow. It didn't.

[Bert]

I just read the ingredients on the bottle of generic aspirin in my medicine cabinet... It contains both polyethylene glycol and propylene glycol.

I've read several variations of the "picric acid from aspirin" recipe, I believe there's one on this site somewhere as well. Could anyone comment on the likely outcome of using salicylic acid extracted with alcohol from such a source? The high temperature of the reaction carried out with contaminants such as PG and PEG present would seem a recipe for disaster.

Of course, I have no idea what their percentages in the medication are- Or how soluble in which alcohols they may be. However, most alcohols are not perfectly anhydrous, so it seems likely they would be extracted regardless.

[GreenCoat]

Originally posted by Bert
I just read the ingredients on the bottle of generic aspirin in my medicine cabinet... It contains both polyethylene glycol and propylene glycol.

I've read several variations of the "picric acid from aspirin" recipe, I believe there's one on this site somewhere as well. Could anyone comment on the likely outcome of using salicylic acid extracted with alcohol from such a source? The high temperature of the reaction carried out with contaminants such as PG and PEG present would seem a recipe for disaster.

Of course, I have no idea what their percentages in the medication are- Or how soluble in which alcohols they may be. However, most alcohols are not perfectly anhydrous, so it seems likely they would be extracted regardless.

I don't think you would have anything to worry about if you washed your acetyl salicylic acid (ASA) with water before going on to the next step. Both PE and PEG are alcohol and water soluble. If I didn't already have access to both phenol and salicylic acid, I would perform an alcohol extraction/filtration to obtain mostly pure ASA, free from fillers and binders. Then obtain sodium acetate and salicylate by boiling a suspension of ASA in NaOH solution. Precipitate salicylic acid with HCl. I know, I know: it's a lot of work. But garbage in, garbage out. This is how it should be done. Any PE or PEG, or other water soluble impurities for that matter, would remain in solution. From reading tablet-forming patents, PE and PEG are added in no more than 2-4% amounts to facilitate blending.

[deadsexy]

I have some anit-freeze propylene glycol that is 95% PG and 5% water. Do you think that this would matter to use for PGDN? Should I boil to concentrate it or just use an excess of H2SO4 in my synthesis?
My plan is to use the PGDN to make a plastique with ETN.

[Boomer]

PG is more volatile than glycerine, and the vapours may be flammable. You will loose a lot and perhaps it will hold some water like ethanol. I used a desiccator once and it worked, but was slow.

Why not take NG instead? It give no headache if you wear gloves, as it hardly volatises below 50 deg. C. And the freezing point will be lowered sufficiently by the ETN unless you use the stuff outside much below zero. At that temperatures it will become quite hard anyway.

P.S. Funny to be a newbie again after 20 years of ‘blasting around’….

[freaky_frank]

I lately made EGDN, normally I make NG, and this stuff yields much better than NG, NG gives me from 20ml glycerine 20ml NG, and EGDN gave me from 20ml EG 27ml EGDN.....
And PGDN gave me from 20ml only a crappy 13ml...

[deadsexy]

I am not using NG because ETN is Oxygen positive just like NG so making a uniform mixture will not increase the VoD much at all. PGDN is Oxygen negative so with ETN it will take advantage and make a nice putty with a great VoD.
I will just use excess acid for the synthesis and add the PG very slowly.

[Microtek]

Just so you know; improving oxygen balance does not automatically increase VoD. In this case I think it would probably reduce it because of the lower densities of liquid nitric esters.

[The_Rsert]

Yesterday evening, I made some PGDN (propylene glycol dinitrate).
I used about 50ml (yes, my scale is broken, so I have to estimate) ammonium nitrate (coarse powder), 100ml H2SO4 and 20ml propylene glycol. The nitration takes 20 min. I kept the temperatures easily between 10°C and 15°C with a ice bath. After the addition I waited 30min. I neutralised and washed the final water insoluble liquid (PGDN)
Yield: Approx. 26ml pure dry sweet smelling PGDN with a slightly yellow coloured touch.
I got no headache :),

So, what can I do with this stuff? Any ideas?

EDIT: I've just ignited 20ml in a delved test tube with <1g AP in a drinkiung straw.
The detonation was many times stroner than a 100g ANNM det..
Some little stones shot up to 100m away (I heard the impacts of the stones) :eek:
I got a min. 45cm wide/20cm deep crater!
If I can, I will make some pics of the crater tommorow.
:) PGDN is my new favourite HE!

[gnitseretni]

From what I can gather this explosive is easy to make, only slightly less powerfull than NG but more stable, ingredients are not hard to obtain... so then what am I missing, why hasn't this explosive gained any popularity?

[bcc1985s12]

The PGDN/ETN combo seems interesting to me. I recently aquired the erithritol, and am looking for more glassware to create my nitric acid in. (I do need nitric acid for both ETN and PGDN, correct?) I will test the ETN and the PGDN seperately, and then combine, test, and post the results. I will also try sensitivizing AN with the PGDN, and compare that with AN sensivitized by nitromethane. Any ideas as to the stability of storing the PGDN/ETN or PGDN/AN? It could take me a while.

Thank you for your opinions, I haven't made or tested anything more complex then APAN at the moment...

[simply RED]

A friend of mine made NG, EGDN and PGDN by the following procedure:
60ml H2SO4(96-99%); 40ml HNO3 59-62% and 15 ml the alcohol.
Cooled during nitration of course.
He got about 15 ml yield every time. Then we mix the NG, EGDN and PGDN (45ml) and detonated it. Quite good blast it was for its size.

PGDN/AN works well. Why not PGDN/NH4ClO4?

[stupid939]

When I used EGDN/AN I couldn't get the AN to dissolve very easily. I dreamed I was using it in a shaped charge, and it worked great, but it leaked way too much. Have any of you had this problem?