a few quick issues

[jackhammer]

Just a few questions for anyone with some spare time and more chemistry knowledge than I.

1. In the tylenol prep. of picric acid (as layed out by our noble benefactor megalomania), what would happen if you didn't use acetone or alcohol to remove contaminants in the aspirin?

2. HMTD apparently won't detonate from heat (I understand it only burns), but I would guess that the pressure from burning confined black powder or nitrocellulose would be sufficient to do the job. Am I correct?

3. HMTD and Acetone peroxide both belong to a group of explosives that interests me. I thought that the triple nitrogen bond was the key in all high explosives, but this family is different. I don't want anyone wasting their time explaining the ins and outs of peroxides, but unfortunately my modem is extremely slow and I have limited access to it and to faster public modems (busy life), so I was wondering if anyone had offhand any links I could check out. Once again, thanks for all the help.

[Skean Dhu]

Well If you try to make TNP from tylenol your going to be greatly dissapointed on two fronts: 1) tylenol contains acetominophen(sp?) and won't become through this synthesis TNP since it lacks the phenol derivative Acetylsalilcyclic acid which you are trying to nitrate in the first place. So you'd have to work out your own way to nitrate the acetominophen. 2) you wasted your precious 70% HNO3 of H2SO4/X-NO3

also HMTD will detonate from flame, you either confine it or add more of it, lacking hexamine I can't give you any personal experience.

[nbk2000]

Mistaking Tylenol for Aspirin? :rolleyes:

[jackhammer]

Mistaking Tylenol for Aspirin?
Actually, in the my own defense, I only put tylenol in the first sentence. I put aspirin in the last.

[nbk2000]

The sentence implied that they are one and the same, when they are not.

[Bert]

I don't want anyone wasting their time explaining the ins and outs of peroxides, but unfortunately my modem is extremely slow and I have limited access to it and to faster public modems (busy life), so I was wondering if anyone had offhand any links I could check out. Once again, thanks for all the help.

This is a politely worded request for spoon feeding. Sorry, UTFSB. If you're too busy to do the research, you surely don't have the time to spend in the ER (or morgue!) after your lack of knowledge or understanding bites you in the ass. What you wanted to know (and the links to much, much more information) is right here if you take the time and are reasonably intelligent.

[jackhammer]

I read that all of the following have a tendence to form into explosive peroxides or autopolymerize
List A
Form potentially explosive

peroxides without

concentrationa . Dispose or

test 3 months after opening.
List B
Form potentially explosive

peroxides on concentrationb

Dispose or test 12 months

after opening.
List C

Autopolymerize as a result

of peroxide accumulation.

Dispose or test inhibited

materials after 12 months.

Butadienec

Chloroprened

Divinyl acetylene

Chloroprene

Tetrafluoroethylenec

Vinylidene chloride

Methacrylate

Tetrafluoroethylene


Acetal

Acetaldehyde

Benzyl alcohol

Isopropyl ether

Cyclohexanol

2-cyclohexen-1-ol

Cumene

Decahydronaphthalene

Diacetylene

Dicyclopentadiene

Diethyl ether

Diethylene glycol

Dimethyl ether

Dioxanes

Ethylene glycol dimethyl ether

4-heptanol

Methyl acetylene

Methyl isobutyl ketone

3-methyl-1 butanol

Methyl cyclopentane

2-pentanol

4-penten-1-ol

1-phenylethanol

2-phenylethanol

2-propanol (isoproranol, “IPA”)

Tetrahydrofuran

Tetrahydronaphthalene

Vinyl ethers

Other secondary alcohols
Acrylic acid

Acrylonitrile

Butadienee

2-butanol

Chlorotrifluoroethylene

Methyl

Stryene

Vinyl acetate

Vinyl acetylene

Vinyl chloride

Vinyl pyridine

I know from experience and from reading that most high explosives form from nitration of chemicals. These instead form a triple bond with oxygen, if I understand rightly, as opposed to nitrogen. AP has 3 sets of O2 molecules, HMTD has the triple O bond, others seem to have a double O bond. Alright, so these chemicals can by peroxidized the same way others can be nitrated, even styrene. Does that mean there is a process that can turn all the items on this list in to a type of explosive? So in some way can hydrogen peroxide fill the shoes of nitric acid, only for less powerful and much more unstable explosives?