The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

NITROGLYCOL 223
amount is necessary. Salt solutions are always used for washing
the nitrated product, otherwise the separation of the phases is
extremely slow.
CH,—OH CH,—OH CH,—ONO,
CH-OH CH—OH CH— ONO,
I I I
CH,—OlHi CH.v. CH,\
r c f
J | >. 0 >. 0
CH—OH CH—OH CH-ONO,
I I I
CHj-OH CH,-OH CH.-ONO,
Tetranitrodiglycerin is a very viscous oil, non-hygroscopic, insoluble
in water, and readily soluble in alcohol and in ether. It
has not been obtained in the crystalline state. It is not a good
gelatinizing agent for collodion cotton when used alone. Its mixture
with nitroglycerin gelatinizes collodion cotton more slowly
than nitroglycerin alone but gives a satisfactory gel. It is less
sensitive to mechanical shock than nitroglycerin, about the same
as dinitroglycerin, but is readily exploded by fulminate. According
to Naourn 40 75% tetranitrodiglycerin guhr dynamite gave in
the Trauzl test a net expansion of 274 cc. or 85.6% of the expansion
(320 cc.) produced by 75% nitroglycerin guhr dynamite.
Nitroglycol (Ethylene glycol dinitrate, ethylene dinitrate)
Nitroglycol first found favor in France as an ingredient of
non-freezing dynamites. It has many of the advantages of nitroglycerin
and is safer to manufacture and handle. Its principal
disadvantage is its greater volatility. Formerly the greater cost
of procuring glycol, which is not as directly accessible as glycerin
but has to be produced by synthesis from ethylene, was an impediment
to its use, but new sources of ethylene and new methods
of synthesis have reduced its cost and increased its accessibility,
Ethylene was formerly procured from alcohol (itself produced
from raw material which was actually or potentially a foodstuff)
by warming with sulfuric acid, by passing the vapors over heated
coke impregnated with phosphoric acid, or by comparable methods.
Ethylene combines with bromine to give ethylene dibromide,
*°Op. cit., p. 201.