Sciencemadness Discussion Board

silver azide vs silver fulminate

dave321 - 28-5-2021 at 07:28

can anyone comment on a comparison of the above two materials w.r.t. preparation and sensitivity re handling ie. static and friction impact ?

i am familiar with silver fulminate , but have no experience with silver azide.

i presume if you prepare the colloid or fluffy version of silver azide ,no phlegmatizers like dextrin pva or caboxymethyl cellulose are needed, indeed they may prevent effective settling out of the material?

not interested in producing a flowable material using the ammonia / costain process.

comments welcome


katyushaslab - 28-5-2021 at 07:59

It has been some years, but silver azide is significantly safer to handle than silver fulminate.

I never had any issues with it personally (while with the fulminate I had some desk pops). It is still a sensitive primary explosive and deserves to be handled with the utmost caution. As for impact, a fairly firm rap will get it going - a bit more firmness needed than with the fulminate, but that is entirely subjective. Unsure how sensitive it is to static, but I'd take precautions regardless.

I'm sure some numbers can be found regarding specific drop-tests on them both, I can always have a look in some books later?

greenlight - 28-5-2021 at 10:50

Here's some info and data from Primary Explosives by Jiří Pachman and Robert Matyáš and klapotkes encyclopedia of energetic materials that might help:



[Edited on 28-5-2021 by greenlight]

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dave321 - 29-5-2021 at 08:17


thanks for the scans,
some good information there.


greenlight - 29-5-2021 at 11:59

Thats okay, theres more info in there about properties and synthesis if needed.

[Edited on 29-5-2021 by greenlight]