Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Hexamine Dinitrate

axd1995 - 14-8-2023 at 06:12

Hexamine dinitrate

axd1995 - 14-8-2023 at 06:17

I have a lot of 25% nitric acid, and I used it to synthesize HDN with Hexamine. I waited for it to cool down, but why didn't it form a precipitate?

Laboratory of Liptakov - 14-8-2023 at 11:08


And how is purpose your sythesis?
( Hexamethylenetetramine dinitrate ( hexamine dinitrate) itself is of no importance as an explosive. )

You need 50 - 70% Nitric Acid. Not 25%. And temperature of reaction under - 15 Celsius...........:cool:
https://chempedia.info/page/19224908512104314708613925508609...



[Edited on 14-8-2023 by Laboratory of Liptakov]

ManyInterests - 14-8-2023 at 17:31

I've successfully made HDN several times following the instruction of this video:

https://www.bitchute.com/video/HshNLFRha9Jl/

I've had the HDN sitting in a box for many months now and I am itching for a chance to turn it all into RDX. But it has been a while.

axd1995 - 15-8-2023 at 19:13

Thank you. I am preparing to use it to make RDX.

Raid - 26-8-2023 at 13:17

Just use Hexamine for RDX.
Its not worth making HDN.

ManyInterests - 26-8-2023 at 18:20

Is using HDN less exothermic than straight hexamine?

B(a)P - 27-8-2023 at 14:45

Quote: Originally posted by ManyInterests  
Is using HDN less exothermic than straight hexamine?


I would imagine so.
More importantly you need less acid if you go via HDN. The last nitro group is hard to get on. If you go direct from hexamine, you reach the point of attaching the last nitro group with a heap of water, so you need excess acid.

ManyInterests - 27-8-2023 at 16:26

Quote: Originally posted by B(a)P  
Quote: Originally posted by ManyInterests  
Is using HDN less exothermic than straight hexamine?


I would imagine so.
More importantly you need less acid if you go via HDN. The last nitro group is hard to get on. If you go direct from hexamine, you reach the point of attaching the last nitro group with a heap of water, so you need excess acid.


That does make sense. But in the synthesis I did yesterday, the HDN nitration was still VERY exothermic. So much so that I thought I would need ot put my acid back in the freezer to chill it back down to 0C (it was at 18C, and the salt-water ice block I froze it in was starting to melt heavily and not cooling it down sufficiently).

But I decided for one final addition before doing that, and that's when the runaway happened. It initially just went to 22C, but then it was slowly but steadily climbing up, I thought it would stablize, but once it hit 29C I decided to cut my losses and play it safe and I dumped the contents of the beaker in 6 liters of cold water.

This is one thing I want to ask. Is it acceptable that, after adding some of the material, that (after making sure the reaction has stabilized), is it acceptable to return the acid beaker to the freezer/fridge to allow it to cool for a while before restarting the addition later? I did sorta do that with my Keto-RDX synth, but it still resulted in a runaway at the very end.

I was informed that keeping the acid too cold could result in temperature spikes (such as what clearly was going on with my RDX synth) but in many nitrations I did they were kinda rare. I felt like I might have had a PETN runaway when I was doing the heating step, but it was only after allowing it to be at room temperature for a while and after the addition of all the PE. Also it might not have been a runaway, but I did see some small red fumes and I decided to play it safe and dumped it on cold water as well.

The temperature was at 15 and 18C for a while. So I don't think it was because it was at low temperature when starting. I do plan on doing a few more RDX synths with my HDN supply and I don't want any more near 'life after detonation' events.