The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

186 AROMATIC NITRO COMPOUNDS
the red of the dinitro compound to the yellow of the tetranitrodiphenylamine.
After all has been added, the temperature is raised to
80-90° and kept there for 2 hours longer while the stirring, is continued.
After the mixture has cooled, the product is filtered off directly, washed
with water until free from acid, and dried in the air or in the oven at
100°.
Fifty grams of the tetranitrodiphenylamine is added slowly, with stirring,
during an hour, to a mixture of 250 grams of nitric acid {d. 1.50)
and 250 grams of sulfuric acid (d. 1.83). After all iias been added, the
mixture is allowed to stand for 3 hours at laboratory temperature, and
is then drowned in ice water. The hexanitrodiphenylamine is filtered off,
washed thoroughly with water, dried in the air, and recrystallized from
acetone with the addition of petroleum ether.
Pure hexanitrodiphenylamine, small yellow needles, melts with
decomposition at 243.0-244.5°. It is insoluble in chloroform, sparingly
soluble in ether and in cold acetic acid, fairly soluble in
alcohol, and readily soluble in cold acetone and in warm acetic
and nitric acids.
Marshall 114 reports minimum priming charges of fulminatechlorate
(90:10) necessary for the complete detonation of the
indicated explosives to be as follows;
GRAMS
Hexanitrodiphenylamine 0.18
Tetryl 0.20
Tetranitroaniline 0.20
Trinitrotoluene 0.25
He found hexanitrodiphenylamine to be slightly less sensitive in
the drop test than tetryl and tetranitroaniline. When 1 pound of
the explosive was loaded into a 3.5-inch cubical box of cardboard
or tin and fired at with a U.S. Army rifle from a distance of 30
yards, hexanitrodiphenylamine gave no detonations in the cardboard
boxes, and 7 detonations and 1 failure in tin; TNT gave
no detonation in cardboard, fire and detonation in tin; and tetryl
and tetranitroaniline gave detonations in every case with either
kind of container. Marshall reported the velocity of detonation
of hexanitrodiphenylamine to be 6898 meters per second at density
1.58, and 7150 meters per second at density 1.67. Pellets of
the explosive, mixed with 1 per cent of stearic acid, compressed
at 5000 pounds per square inch, had a density 1.43, at 10,000
lu Loc. at.