Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Highly explosive liquid zinc or copper compound

kemetic - 25-1-2008 at 12:36

I read somewhere about two years ago - it might have been in the archives on this board - that there is a certain compound that is so dangerously explosive that even the military doesn't use it. I also believe it was easy to make.

From what I remember it was something like zinc powder dissolved in ammoniumnitrate (doesn't seem quite like it even if it would dissolve slow as this would be). Copper yielded the same product. It was related to the explosive salts you get from precipitating heavy metals from an acid solution with ammonia or ammonia salts such as fulminating gold or lead fulminate.

I would like to know what that product is I'm wondering about. It was too easy to make and something to take notice of 'not to do'. I can't quite believe it was as simple as producing an NH3-zinc/copper-nitrate compound though. I am also absolutely certain it was a liquid explosive.

Ozone - 25-1-2008 at 12:42

Hmm,

Copper acetylide? See also, silver acetylide. I don't know about Zn, though.

Cheers,

O3

TACN

MadHatter - 25-1-2008 at 21:04

You mentioned NH4NO3 and copper. Tetramine copper nitrate comes to mind. TACC,
the chlorate version is less a pain in the ass to deal with though.

chemrox - 25-1-2008 at 23:20

mixtures of powdered Zn and sulfur make good rocket fuels and explosives if confined.. they become unstable after awhile and are dangerous to handle. so it might be a Zn mixture. have you searched the board?

kemetic - 26-1-2008 at 06:33

I think it's TACN. Found a thread about it on this board and roguesci

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=1778

www.roguesci.org/theforum/showthread.php?p=56709

[Edited on 26-1-2008 by kemetic]

Zinc Salt of nitrourea?

Aqua_Fortis_100% - 26-1-2008 at 07:16

Sorry by little off-topic, but IIRC I had read of this sometime ago in Mr Cool page.

It seem to be easy to reproduce at home, although the author of this said that isn't really interesting and not gave the synthesis of it.. It can not be the right topic to post but , has anyone properties/synth of it?

Although personally I would like nitrourea more than as precursor for DPT than other salts/complexes..

[Edited on 26-1-2008 by Aqua_Fortis_100%]

SsgtHAZMAT - 26-1-2008 at 22:56

There are literally hundreds of explosives we will not use. Mostly because they are so dangerous that they are more of a pain in the ass to move around than they are worth. Nitroglycerin is a very well known one.

When you have the resources we have, you can afford to do things a little safer.

Funny story, AQ-I keeps trying to make homemade XO here. You see the evidence of it all the time in building going up for no reason at all. This tends to happen when they either get the mixture right but the handling wrong, or the get the mixture wrong, but the cigarette in their hand ignites it anyway.

JohnWW - 27-1-2008 at 00:19

Besides Cu(II) acetylide, other highly explosive Cu(II) compounds would be the azide, Cu(N3)2, and fulminate (isocyanate), Cu(NCO)2. The tetrazolate, pentazolate, chlorate, and bromate are also likely to be dangerously explosive.

[Edited on 27-1-08 by JohnWW]

Nicodem - 27-1-2008 at 01:39

There is no Cu(II) acetylide since Cu(II) oxidizes acetylene to carbon. Only the Cu(I) acetylide exists (Cu2C2).

Tinton - 11-2-2008 at 11:44

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but a mixture of NH4NO3, Zn, and NH4Cl is water sensitive. It's not explosive, but it does deflagrate.

PHILOU Zrealone - 12-2-2008 at 04:53

Ni(ClO4)2 and Cu(ClO4)2 will explose on contact with NH2-NH3OH ...nickel complex is shock sensitive even in water solution...
I suppose Zn(ClO4)2 will behave similarly...

****************************************

By a pure hazard I had just retranscripted the receipe from a lost paper. I don't know the source anymore...at that time I didn't care much about sources.

Zinc nitroureate is made by mixing ZnO/ZnCO3 and nitrourea solution in water.

Zn nitroureate:
Mix 40.7g of ZnO with 105g of NU in 200ml of water.
Agitate 1h, T° should rise from 24°C to 30°C.
Cool down and filtrate the precipitate. Wash twice with cold water.Dry it to 60°C.
Zn(N(NO2)-CO-NH2)2, deflagration T°125C

[Edited on 12-2-2008 by PHILOU Zrealone]

[Edited on 13-2-2008 by PHILOU Zrealone]

[Edited on 13-2-2008 by PHILOU Zrealone]

quicksilver - 27-2-2008 at 11:32

Quote:
Originally posted by Nicodem
There is no Cu(II) acetylide since Cu(II) oxidizes acetylene to carbon. Only the Cu(I) acetylide exists (Cu2C2).


Coming back to this issue, I have read some older patents mention cuperous or cupric acetylide; do you have any further info or synthesis other than Federoff? Was this a material synthesized similar to silver?

PHILOU Zrealone - 28-2-2008 at 03:18

Quote:
Originally posted by Nicodem
There is no Cu(II) acetylide since Cu(II) oxidizes acetylene to carbon. Only the Cu(I) acetylide exists (Cu2C2).

Actually if you do Cu2C2 via CuCl (white)/NH4OH (the mix is blue pale complex solution) and C2H2, you get a red precipitate. If this is left in water (I have done this to prevent any unwanted explosion risks) it loses its explosive properties...almost no colour change is observed except a slight darkening, no apparent gas is lost or bubbled away....I suspect it to be the Cu(II) acetylide...never noticed any carbon.

In one of my first attempt to make Cu acetylide, I used CuCl2 instead of CuCl and got a brown precipitate without any explosive properties.

[Edited on 28-2-2008 by PHILOU Zrealone]

Waffles - 3-3-2008 at 15:26

Quote:
Originally posted by SsgtHAZMAT
There are literally hundreds of explosives we will not use. Mostly because they are so dangerous that they are more of a pain in the ass to move around than they are worth. Nitroglycerin is a very well known one.

When you have the resources we have, you can afford to do things a little safer.

Funny story, AQ-I keeps trying to make homemade XO here. You see the evidence of it all the time in building going up for no reason at all. This tends to happen when they either get the mixture right but the handling wrong, or the get the mixture wrong, but the cigarette in their hand ignites it anyway.


I love hearing things like this. Good poster to have around the forums!