• If possible, use secondary amines or primary amines with
a large alkyl group (e.g. mono-t-butyl amine) instead of
ammonia to avoid the formation of explosive products.
• Avoid an excess of ammonia (which increases the
product’s sensitivity) in the course of your reaction. Use
as little as possible.
• In your reactions with gold(III) compounds, be aware that
some chemicals may release ammonia, e.g. ammonium
carbonate or urea at elevated temperature.
• Without a major excess of ammonia, the addition of
significant amounts of sodium or potassium cyanide to
the slightly basics solution can prevent the precipitation
of fulminating gold [35, 43]. Be aware of the formation of
very toxic hydrogen cyanide gas from acidic solutions!
• Do not wash the precipitate, neither with water, nor (even
worse) with ammonia solutions or bases. Both leads to
the formation of even more sensitive and explosive
products.
• If you accidentally obtain a precipitate from a reaction of
gold(III) compounds and ammonia, do not dry it, but
keep it moist. Only the dry product is explosive.
• Precipitation in presence of excess amounts of NH4+and/ or Cl–(e.g. NH4
Cl or NH4NO3) leads to a less (in case of Cl–) or not explosive (in case of NH4+) product.
• Do not synthesize or handle larger quantities than 500
mg of fulminating gold.
• Use safety equipment when handling fulminating gold,
such as: safety goggles, face shield, leather coat,
earthening (person and equipment), KevlarTM gloves and
wrist protectors and ear plugs. In general, avoid the use
of glass or metal equipment (e.g. spatula) because of the
possible formation of shards or shrapnels in case of an
explosion. Use plastic beakers and spatula instead. Only
for the drying of wet, freshly precipitated fulminating
gold in the desiccator, the use of a glass beaker has
turned out as practicable, because fulminating gold
tends to adsorb on the bottom of a polypropylene beaker
in the course of drying, from where it can be removed
only by hazardous scratching.
• Avoid friction to the dry product. Remember its high
friction sensitivity. Act in a concentrated way and handle
the product with care and precaution.
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