The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

184 AROMATIC NITRO COMPOUNDS
lemon-yellow plates which melt at 97.5-98.0°. It is readily soluble
in benzene, ethyl acetate, alcohol and acetone, and is insoluble
in petroleum ether. It yields sodium picrate when boiled with
sodium carbonate solution.
Butyl tetryl is suitable for use in boosters, reinforced detonators,
detonating fuse, primer caps, etc. For the detonation of 0.4
gram, it requires 0.19 gram of mercury fulminate. It has a
slightly greater shattering effect than TNT in the sand test and
shows about the same sensitivity as tetryl in the drop test. It
explodes spontaneously at 210°.
Hexanitrodiphenylamine
2,2',4,4',6,6'-Hexanitrodiphenylaminc (hexil, hexite, hexamin,
etc.) is another explosive which can be prepared most conveniently
from dinitrochlorobenzene. Its ammonium salt has been used
under the name of aurantia as a yellow dye for silk and wool.
It has valuable explosive properties but is more poisonous than
nitroglycerin and attacks the skin, causing severe blisters which
resemble burns. Its dust is injurious to the mucous membranes
of the mouth, nose, and lungs. Mertens 104 in 1878 prepared hexanitrodiphenylamine
by the nitration of diphenylamine with fuming
nitric acid in concentrated sulfuric acid solution. Its behavior
as a pseudo-acid has been studied by Alexandrov 105 and by
Hantzsch and Opolski. 106 Hausermann 107 in 1891 reported upon
its explosive power as compared with trinitrotoluene, and a
patent granted in 1909 to Otto Freiherr von Schroetter 108 described
an explosive consisting of 80 parts of hexanitrodiphenylamine
and 20 parts of trinitrotoluene. The large-scale preparation
by the direct nitration of diphenylamine was reported in 1910, 109
and the process from dinitrochlorobenzene, originally described
in a patent to the Griesheim Chem. Fabrik, 110 was reported by
104 Ber., 11, 843 (1878). Austen, ibid., 7, 1249 (1874), reported the formation
of the substance by the nitration of picryl-p-nitroaniline, and Gnehin,
ibid., 7, 1399 (1874), by the nitration of methyldiphenylamine.
105 /. Russ. Phys. Chem. Soc.r 39, 1391 (1907).
106 Ber., 41, 1745 (19Q8).
107 Z. angew. Chem., 17, 510 (1891).
108 U. S. Pat. 934,020 (1909).
109 Z. ges. Schieas- u. Spre.ngstoffw., 5, 16 (1910).
110 Ger. Pat, 86,295 (1895).