Sciencemadness Discussion Board - HMTD and isopropanol alcohol

HMTD and isopropanol alcohol

wardy940 - 2-9-2013 at 02:55

hey there im thinking of synthesizing some HMTD using hydrogen peroxide, hexamine and citric acid and was wondering whether slightly wetting it with isopropanol when it is completed and dried would keep it safe to handle first time doing this for primary explosives and a little worried on safety.

kafer96 - 2-9-2013 at 07:21

Quote: Originally posted by wardy940

hey there im thinking of synthesizing some HMTD using hydrogen peroxide, hexamine and citric acid and was wondering whether slightly wetting it with isopropanol when it is completed and dried would keep it safe to handle first time doing this for primary explosives and a little worried on safety.

Wetting HMTD slightly with alcohol will decrease its sensitivity to static discharge, but it will change little in its shock and friction sensitivity. So it would be much safer if you use your HMTD as fast as you can without wetting it with alcohol, because HMTD is not suitable for long storage.

VladimirLem - 2-9-2013 at 08:31

Quote: Originally posted by kafer96

thats wrong...

the first time i synthesized HMTD i tried to detonate a litte bit with a hammer (friction/shock)....but it was a bit wet from the ethanol....i smashed really really hard at it with the hammer but nothing happens...
i dryed it a hour and tryed again...i just touched it with the hammer and .....*peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee* <- that was the fucking 2 hours long tinitus i got

another time i tried to detonate a small sample of HAPAN (HMTD/AN)...dident detonated, was to wet too...i had doubts before igniting if it could be to wet and it could really only be a few percents of ethanol in it...

i know, i know...."but thats a peroxide it can always blow up"....yes, but i say, some ethanol will make it (when you really want to stroage it, MUCH saver)...if you want to ignite it, it HAS to be fucking dry!

Fantasma4500 - 2-9-2013 at 10:54

i think you might want to consider faster evaporating solvents?
dont take my word for it, but i suppose acetone should be easily accessible atleast easy to make at home, and it might not dissolve the HMTD..

AP is infamous for being with a low water sensitivity when it comes to detonation, and APAN is wetmixed usually, of what ive heard

lets not make this thread go to detritus because the mods will get paranoia with too many mentionings of primaries mixed as a secondary, shall we?

Ral123 - 2-9-2013 at 11:43

Well sure, first we have an unstable and dangerous primary, now we have a wet one witch is useless. But if it happens that it looses the alcohol, you're in perfect danger of blowing yourself up. The normal material can be ignited only along it's volume, but now you have a whole lot of flammable vapours going around it so guess what, the spark doesn't even need to be on the material, it can be somewhere around it.
Phlegmatizer and volatility seems like oxymoron to me.

wardy940 - 15-9-2013 at 02:37

So it wouldn't work? I wasn't talking about soaking just damp really. I'm going to try build a hand press type machine that I can use to press the blasting caps from a safer distance before I even try and synthesis the HMTD. I figured I'd prefer to keep my fingers.

virgilius1979 - 18-9-2013 at 10:05

I have about 10-15g of HMTD in isopropanol for 4 months. I checked it for sensitivity and indeed, I confirm what Vladimir Lem said, that is pretty unsensitive; it needs the alcohol to evaporate or burn completely in order to deflagrate. I'll check it from time to time to see if it changes properties. On the other hand isopropanol is not very volatile like ethanol or even better - acetone, so the last one could be better if you want to get into action faster.