Lyddite

[NoltaiR]

I was reading through the electric library last night about picric acid in particular. I ran across a few interesting stories (the halifax explosion in particular) that involved large amounts on picric acid as well as stories of college kids getting busted with having a few jars of it in the dorm rooms.

Anyways it also spoke of melinite being made by mixing nitrocellulose/guncotton and picric.

Also it spoke of a compound called lyddite so named because of the original testing site for it was in a British town called Lydd. Not many details were given about it other than that it was made by casting picric acid onto another compound or compounds which the names were not given. The product was used in artillery shells as an extremely cheap and powerful munition. I was just wondering if any of you knew the procedure for making lyddite.

[kingspaz]

ok, i've consulted the chemistry of powder and explosives and have found the following:
1. melinite (acute on the e) is the french name for lyddite.
2. one mixture is 60/40 trinitrophenol/dinitrophenol
3. another mixture is 60/40 trinitron-m-cresol/picric acid
4. MDPC - 55/35/10 trinitrophenol/dinitrophenol/trinitron-m-cresol
5. MTTC - 55/35/10 trinitrophenol/trinitrotoluene/trinitron-m-cresol
6. all mixtures melt between 80*C and 90*C allowing for cast explosives.
7. another mixture which may be compressed into containers is: 88/12 trinitrophenol/molten paraffin wax or stearic acid.
shit that took ages! oh yer all parts are by weight. hope that helped!

[Madog555]

what about TNP plus PETN?

i read that TNT/PETN mixtures extremely powerful?

TNP/PETN may be a good alternative to TNT/PETN mixes better for home manufacture and maybe even more powerful sience TNP is better than TNT

[Mr Cool]

TNP/PETN mixtures would be very powerful (all mixtures with a significant amount of PETN in them will be...), but it won't be safely castable. The main reasons that TNT is used are that it is cheap, and it and mixtures with it are castable at low temperatures, therefore they can be cast safely.
But TNP/PETN with small amounts of DNT, DNB, MNN in as well might be castable...

[wantsomfet]

Some PETN containing castable mixtures:
20% PETN / 80% m-dinitrobenzene / melts @ 82,4 °C
10% PETN / 90% 2,4-DNT / melts @ 67,3 °C
13% PETN / 87% alpha-TNT / melts @ 76,1 °C
30% PETN / 70% Tetryl / melts @ 111,3 °C
20% PETN / 80% nitromannite / melts @ 101,3 °C
12,5 % PETN / 71% m-dinitrobenzene / 16,5% 1,8-dinitronaphtalene / melts @ 69 °C

found none with PETN/TNP

[pdb]

I would like to wake up this old thread with the aim of using cast TNP to make detonators that would not need any compression, as it is the case with PETN.

- PETN/TNP cast mixtures aren't used because of the acidity of TNP (the reason why TNT is used instead of PETN). However, I believe that PETN would not be decomposed rapidly, but I miss precise info about the decay of such mixture.

- using pure cast TNP with a small layer of PETN acting as a booster is a solution. But here too I cannot find reliable indo about cast TNP sensitivity to PETN and main primaries.

- I will of course use aluminium canister to prevent any formation of metal picrate that would make the deto dangerous to handle.

Any idea/data about cast TNP initiation would be welcome.