ANFO with Tolouene or Xylene as sensitizer?

[Bozmann]

I was wondering if anyone have had any experience with tolouene or xylene as a sensitizer for AN, to make it cap sensetive? I was wondering cause this would be very nice :) because its easy to get and very cheap here in Norway

[tomu]

You might want to look at the Patent US 4,093,478 Activated Ammonium Nitrate Explosive Composition, also see Pat. US 3,718,512 Porous Particles Containg Organic Liqiud And Gaseous Components, also see Pat. US 4,253,889 Two-Component Explosive Composition.

[Bozmann]

Thanks for that but dont those compositions use nitromethan also?

[tomu]

That's right most of them do. But there is much to be learned from this patents and if I remember corretly at least in one of these Patents there is an example with just Xylene and AN. You wann't get the highperformance with Xylene only, the use of Nitromethan is highly recommended

The use of Xylene reduces the amount of Nitromethan needed for ANNM by a large percentage.

There is also a book called 'Improvised Munitions from Ammonium Nitrate' which might be helpful to you. Search the literature section there is a link in one of the posts to a download site.

[Bozmann]

Will the composition described in the Activated Ammonium Nitrate Explosive Composition using nitromethane and xylene be as powerfull as straight annm?
What % NM an Xylene by weight to AN is the bes mix?

[tomu]

Well, I've given you enough information on this subject that you can find the answers to your questions by yourself.

I will not do the reading for you, if you need to be spoonfed you are not old enough to handle explosives.

[Silentnite]

When in doubt, EXPERIMENT. I love that part. Its the most fun.

At the end of the day, after all the long hours toiling at making any particular charge, I have a lovely time blowing something the hell up. That little lawn gnome has been pissing me off for weeks.

Since this is chemistry, and most if not all of the factors involved can be adjusted or done differently, it's a personal science. While I can say that 65.89% AN and 14.11%NM and 20% Xylene, combined at 60degree's Celsius, will give the best explosion(I don't really know if it will or not), your mileage may vary. You might not do the procedure the exact same way as me, because I'm fallible, and will omit something that's perfectly logical to myself, but maybe not so to you. So our experiances, while helpful, are only a starting point, and experiance is only learned firsthand.

So I'll say again, When in doubt, Experiment.


EDIT: While looking back through the forum, I found something a decent search should have turned up. A thread on Xylene flavored AN (http://www.roguesci.org/theforum/showthread.php?t=2980) Go forth, and partake of the fruit that doth blossom on this, the E&W tree.

[Bozmann]

Thanx Silentnite!
Experimenting is absolutely the best (and the fun way) finding out! ;)