lucky123 - 18-3-2008 at 18:56
I saw in the water gel explosive thread that there was a section saying a mixture of this nature would work as an explosive... Has anyone done this
and got it to detonate? Seems it would be cheap to make...
bfesser - 19-3-2008 at 08:18
Do you mean methanol? And it's Al, never al, if you're referring to aluminum. Also, wouldn't this post belong in the other thread?
[Edited on 3/19/08 by bfesser]
Money better spent elswhere
franklyn - 19-3-2008 at 10:00
The literature is discouraging
On the explosive nature of mixtures of magnesium or aluminum with water or methanol
researched by L. Medard - Memorial des Poudres , vol. 33 , 1951, page numbers 490 - 503
From the HSE translation of the french journal above, Quote _
" Conclusion :
Stoichiometric mixtures of magnesium or aluminum and water
( implies methanol also )
have a specific energy comparable to that of guncotten; but
they are incapable of spreading detonation without the addition
of at least 7% of a sensitizer such as penthrite (PETN).
Even these triple mixtures are of little practical interest because
of their physical instability ( exudation) or chemical instability
(decomposition)".
In short these formulations need additionally another explosive to
promote detonation beyond a low order explosion.
.
Zinc - 19-3-2008 at 13:16
Seems very easy to make. Al, water and some AP to sensitize the mixture. How fine must the metal powder be?
Boomer - 20-3-2008 at 08:16
1200+ mesh flake probably, or critical dia goes to feet instead of inches.
Would be interesting to know how little TATP slurried in water is still detonable. I know a few spoons per liter are not, it goes through a blender
just fine. 1oo times that (i.e. 1:1 by weight) is hard to get going with a hammer-on-anvil, behaving like a secondary at best.
For comparison, PETN stops to be cap sensitive at 35+ percent inerts (inert as binder, sand is a different matter entirely).
E-tech - 3-4-2008 at 12:49
you could leave out the aluminum and use the methanol as your fuel with hydrogen peroxide as your oxidizer. US patent#2452074 uses glycerol as the
fuel, but methanol should work, too.