The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

DIPENTAERYTHRITE HEXANITRATE 281
nitroguanidine, and guanidine picrate. A mixture of PETN with
guanidine picrate is less sensitive to heat and to shock than
ordinary colloided smokeless powder, and is stable at all temperatures
which are likely to be encountered. PETN does not colloid
with nitrocellulose. It dissolves readily in warm trinitrotoluene,
and mixtures may be prepared which contain 65% or more of
PETN. The richer mixtures may be used as propellent powders.
The less-rich mixtures are brisant and powerful high explosives
comparable in their behavior and effects to TNB.
Stettbacher 113 in 1931 described several dynamite-like explosives
which contained both PETN and nitroglycerin. He called
them by the general name of Penthnnit, and described simple
penthrinit, gelatin penthrinit, and ammonpenthnnit. Naoum 114
later in the same year reported comparative tests of ammonpenthnnit
and gelatin dynamite, as follows.
Composition
PETN
Nitroglvcerm
Collodion nitrocotton
Dimtrotoluene
Wood meal
Ammonium nitrate
Trauzl test (average)
Velocity of detonation (average)
At density of loading
AMMONPENTHRINIT
37%
10%
5%
48%
430 cc
6600 meters per sec.
1.36
GELATIN DYNAMITE
63%
2%
5%
30%
465 cc.
7025 meters per sec.
1.47
A Swiss patent of 1932 to Stettbacher "•'' covers the conversion
of PETN into a plastic mass by means of 10-30% of a fluid
nitric ester such as nitroglycerin or nitroglycol. It states that a
mixture of 80% PETN and 20% nitroglycerin is a plastic mass,
density 1.65, which does not separate into its components and
which is suitable for loading shells and detonators. For the latter
purpose it is initiated with 0.04 gram of lead azide.
Dipentaerythrite Hexanitrate (Dipenta)
The formation of a certain amount of dipentaerythrite is unavoidable
during the preparation of pentacrythritc. It is nitrated
113 Z. ges. Schiess- u. Sprengstofftc, 26, 8, 39 (1931).
n *Ibid., 26, 42 (1931).
1 is Swiss Pat. 137,476 (1932).