Looking for info on ammonium azide...

[Mr Cool]

I have a synth for it in mind, but was wondering if anyone has data on impact sensitivity, etc. for it? Please, if you know anything about it, let me know here.

I'm thinking about mixing conc. aqueous solns. of NaN3 and NH4NO3, and slowly stirring in plenty of ethanol. NaNO3 is soluble in ethanol, NH3N3 is only slightly soluble in it (c. 1g/100mL of 80% ethanol at 20*C). Any comments on this?

Thanks.

[mongo blongo]

I have never heard anything about this explosive but it sounds interesting. Is it a primary explosive?
After you add the ethanol it may be a good idea to cool the solution to precipitate as much NH3N3 as possible. If this explosive is very sensitive then the particle size may be a problem when precipitating the NH3N3. Maybe dextrin could be used to prevent large crystals from forming.

[Fallout85]

From Fedoroff:

Ammonium Azide (formerly called Ammonium
Trinitride or Ammonium Azoimide), NH4N3,
mw 60.06, N 93.29%; CO1, nonhygr, rhmb
plates; mp expl 160° (Ref 5), starts to sublime
at 133-4°, bp expl above temp limit for slow
decompn ca 300°, d 1.346 at 20°, QPf–26.O kcal/
mol (Refs 17&21) Qvf -19 kcal/mol (Ref 9)
Qpcor v approx 98 kcal/mol (Ref 6) & Qe
31.2 kcal/mol (Refs 6&9) sol in w, sl sol
in alc or NH40H, in sol in eth. It forms with
ammonia a diammonate NH4N3.2NH3, in clear,
CO1 elongated plates, which is stable at
-33°, unstable at 0° and undergoes transition
at -9° (Ref 7). One g liq NH3 dissolves 0.7g
Amm azide at -33° and lg at 0° (Ref 7),
forms a eutectic with NH, at -870 and 76%
NH3 concn (Ref 14). Addnl soly data and
other props given in Ref 7). Amm azide was
first prepd in 1890 by Curtius (Ref 1) by the
action of NH3 on hydrazoic acid. Detailed
descrpns of methods of prepn can be found
in Refs 4,10,11,13,15,16&18.
While it sublimes below 250° at press O
to 150 mm Hg, it shows slow decompn between
250450° at 70 mm and betw 250°-3100 at
150 mm. Amm azide is one of the more stable
azides (Ref 20). According to Gray & Wad-
dington it vaporizes and dissociates into
NH3 & HN3 and then the HN3 explodes. A hot
wire causes Amm azide to burn quietly in
air rather than detonate (Ref 20). This azide
detonates violently when properly initiated,
heated rapidly or heated, under confinement
(Refs 2 & 10). Temp of expln is 1400° and
specific energy 7102 kg/1 (Ref 9). It is con-”
sidered a non-brisant expl as it decomposes
in an ideal manner producing only innocuous
gases (1148 l/kg at 0° and 760 mm) (Ref 6).
The toxicity of Amm azide is unknown (Ref
22). Ephraim (Ref 19) states that this salt
may be regarded as a polymer of imide(NH)X.
Infrared spectra studies of solid Amm azide
are presented by Dews et al (Ref 19a) and
the tryst structure detd by Frevel (Ref 17a)
By mixing ammonium azide and hydro-
chloroplatinic acid and concg the soln by
evapn, a very expl residue was obtained
(Ref 10; p 355)

Hope this helps.

[Mr Cool]

It does, thanks :)

[Alchemist]

Hello all,

Mr. Cool! Where did ya find Sodium Azide and is it NOT expensive, or is it home made???

[mongo blongo]

You won't have much luck finding NaN3 unless you can order it from a chem supplier. It would be very suspicious though. Another option is opening up an air bag casing from a car. The NaN3 is used as a charge to inflate the air bag. It will be in the form of small brown pellets. The material also contains sand and iron oxide IIRC so it will have to be removed.I "obtained" my NaN3 from a lab.

[Mr Cool]

I got it from two airbags, 225g of pellets in total, roughly 80% pure (calculated by dissolving a known mass of pellets, filtering it, and making lead azide with excess Pb(NO3)2, then weighing this azide...). It's probably +/- quite a few % though.

[PrimoPyro]

I suppose you could exploit the selective solubility of the ammonium ion in water.

Consider the ancient method for making sodium bicarbonate, with an ammonium chloride "byproduct" (hah, today the byproduct is worth more than the product) by dissolving sodium chloride in ammonia water and bubbling carbon dioxide gas through the solution.

The insoluble sodium bicarbonate slowly precipitates out of solution to a very large extent (the basic environment from the ammonia co-solute drastically lowers the solubility of the sodium bicarbonate to the point of precipitation) leaving ammonium ions and chloride ions in solution.

You could exploit this by replacing sodium chloride with sodium azide, giving the azide ion and the ammonium ion in solution. I would consider using solid carbon dioxide (Dry Ice) instead of gas though, and I would recommend keeping the solution basic by having at least a 1.2 molar excess of ammonium ion to sodium ion, to as to prevent deionization of the azide ion to hydrazoic acid.

Hydrazoic acid, as I'm certain you know, is an incredibly painful/miserable way to die. It is readily absorbed through the skin and lungs, and its effects are noticed almost immediately. I can provide an MSDS if desired. Very very nasty compound. Keep that environment basic.

PrimoPyro

[Mr Cool]

That's a good idea, I never thought of that.
As a matter of fact I might try this later tonight, since I should be getting some dry ice for making dinitramides.
I realised the alcohol pptation method won't work too well, since NaN3 is less soluble in ethanol than NH4N3!
Yeah, I know HN3 is nasty. Lol, when I first got my NaN3 the Pb(N3)2 I was making was probably 25% Pb(OH)2!! I added far too much NaOH because I was paranoid.

Thanks for the help.