Ammonium Nitrate Mixtures

The first step in extracting ammonium nitrate from commercial fertilizer is to find a suitable fertilizer source. Pure ammonium nitrate would be labelled as 34-0-0, with the 34 representing the nitrogen content, and the two zeroes re presenting the potassium and phosphorus content, respectively. The old ammonium nitrate fertilizer which used to be quite suitable for direct conversion to explosive mixtures was labelled as 32-0-0. Good luck finding any of that anymore. If you can, you just saved yourself a lot of work. 

Then for each pound of ground fertilizer in the container, add a pint of hot water. Boiling hot water fresh off the stove would be 

Once the water has cooled down a bit, the mixture should be filtered. A doubled up coffee filter works pretty well at removing the undissolved fertilizer sludge. For larger runs, a pillow case should work almost as well. The filtered water should look clear. If there is suspended gunk floating around, filter it again. 

The amount of liquid which filters out of the fertilizer will be less than one pint per pound of fertilizer. To recover the ammonium nitrate left trapped in the fertilizer sludge, add about one-half pint of water to the sludge for each pound of fertilizer originally used. Stir it around for a coupie minutes, then filter again. 

Now the amount of water filtrate should be at least one pint for each pound of fertilizer originally used. The fertilizer sludge can be thrown away, because now all the ammonium nitrate is in the water filtrate. 

---

Many plants outside of North America pfill or granulate a mixture of ammonium nitrate and calcium carbonate. Production of this mixture, often called calcium ammonium nitrate, essentially removes any explosion hazard. In many cases calcium nitrate recovered from acidulation of phosphate rock (see Phosphoric acid and the phosphates) is reacted with ammonia and carbon dioxide to give a calcium carbonate—ammonium nitrate mixture containing 21 to 26% nitrogen (23). 

All other dangerous reactions consist of oxidations of bismuth by strong oxidants. Thus, chloric and perchloric acids lead to highly sensitive explosives (probably bismuth chlorate and perchlorate). Fuming nitric acid causes the incandescence of bismuth at ambient temperature whereas a detonation occurs when molten bismuth is mixed with concentrated nitric acid. Rnally, a bismuth/molten ammonium nitrate mixture causes a very violent or even an explosive reaction. 

Chapman studied the nitrolysis of symmetrical methylenediamines. The nitrolysis of N, N, N, M-tetramethylmethylenediamine with nitric acid-acetic anhydride-ammonium nitrate mixtures gives both dimethylnitramine and RDX the latter probably arises from the nitroT ysis of hexamine formed from the reaction of ammonium nitrate and formaldehyde released from the hydrolysis of the methylenediamine. The same reaction with some morpholine-based methylenediamines (105) allows the synthesis of l,3,5-trinitro-l,3,5-triazacycloalkanes (106). 

There have also been interesting and promising attempts to use ammonium nitrate as a component of high explosives. Particularly noteworthy are the experiments in which potassium nitrate in blackpowder is completely or partially replaced by ammonium nitrate to improve brisance. This led to the ammonium nitrate mixtures, Ammonpulver M90 and M96, 15/85 mm. They were employed in Austria for filling shells at the end of the nineteenth century but were not used for long, due to the difficulty of detonating them. 

The Germans also used a similar mixture containing trinitroanisole instead of TNT for filling aerial bombs. In Britain other Amatols were also employed, i.e. ammonium nitrate mixtures with TNT in various ratios (Table 48). 

Apart from composite explosives with ammonium nitrate, mixtures with other nitrates also acquired temporary significance, e.g. a mixture used in Russia during World War I for filling hand grenades had the following composition ... 

The preparation of infusible (loose powder) ammonium nitrate mixtures is usually carried out in the same way as the manufacture of composite mining explosives. Since the military explosives are not very sensitive to mechanical stimulants, and it is important to obtain a high density, mixing is usually performed by edge runner mills. 

Ammonium nitrate mixtures with a minimum of 4% nitroglycerine and cooling salts,... 

The velocity of detonation of TNT-ammonium nitrate mixtures decreases regularly with increasing amounts of ammonium... 

Ammonium Nitrate. Mixture of 0.5% KMn04 in ammonium nitrate exploded 7 hours later.6... 

Slurry explosives are ammonium nitrate mixtures that frequently contain another oxidizer as well as a fuel dispersed in a fluid medium that, among other functions, controls the rheology of the gel-slurry. Like blasting agents, slurry explosives are usually ammonium nitrate mixtures sensitized with nonexplosive fuels such as oil or wax. 

The shot holes were filled with the ammonium nitrate mixture to within a foot of the top of the rock layer, a 1 / 10-second-delay electrical blasting cap installed, and then a foot of sand blown in, filling the hole in the rock. 

Water-containing ammonium nitrate mixtures with fuels are known as -> Slurries and -> Emulsion Slurries... 

Methylamine nitrate is considerably more hygroscopic than ammonium nitrate. Its sensitivity to impact is very low. It can be employed as a flux component in castable ammonium nitrate mixtures, but requires incorporation of brisant components. Methylamine nitrate is also employed as a component in - Slurries. 

During the Second World War, this compound was utilized as a fuel component in fusible ammonium nitrate mixtures. It can be homogeneously incorporated into the melt. 

Fusible explosives Mixtures of nitro compounds Mixtures with ammonium nitrate Manufacture and selection of fusible mixtures The flegmatizaiion of fusible mixtures Semi-fusible and infusible explosives Mixtures with nitrates — mainly with ammonium nitrate Mixtures with aluminium and other metak The preparation of S-iypc mixtures Mixtures with chlorates and perchlorates Mixtures with potassium and sodium chlorates Mixtures with potassium and ammonium perchlorates Plastic explosives... 

Pure ammonium nitrate, ammonium nitrate-ammonium sulfate mixtures and calcium carbonate-ammonium nitrate mixtures (lime ammonium nitrate, calnitro , see Section 2.2.2.2) belong to this substance class. The worldwide production of these materials in 1995 was 15.5 10 t. In total nitrogen fertilizer production there is a shift to urea, which has a higher nitrogen content and can be inexpensively produced. The total consumption of ammoni-... 

For safety reasons F.R. Germany only permits ammonium nitrate-mixtures, e.g. with calcium carbonate, to be used as fertilizers... 

The recipes given here are by no means all of the easily prepared high performance ammonium nitrate mixtures. One very popular underground recipe mixes 15% by volume of Bullseye brand reloading powder with 5% by volume aluminum powder and 80% by volume finely ground ammonium nitrate. In... 

To detonate the more sleepy explosives such as ammonium nitrate with an M-80, one needs only to allow the M-80 to set off a charge of gelatin in the ammonium nitrate mixture, and then that charge of gelatin becomes the booster for the mixture setting it off. 

Ammonium nitrate fertilizers that are not classified as oxidizers are classified as miscellaneous hazardous materials. This type of fertilizer has other materials in the mixture, and there are controlled amounts of combustible materials. Mixtures of ammonium nitrate, nitrogen, and potash that are not more than 70% ammonium nitrate and do not have more than 0.4% combustible material are included as a miscellaneous hazardous material. Additionally, ammonium nitrate mixtures with nitrogen and potash, with not more than 45% ammonium nitrate, may have combustible material that is umestricted in quantity. The four-digit UN identification number for these mixtures of ammonium nitrate fertihzer is 2071. 

Recently this approach has been extended to parallel combinatorial library synthesis. One example is the solvent-free synthesis of a 96-member library of substituted pyridines via a one-step Hantzsch-3CC conducted in 96-weU micro titer filter plates (Scheme 2.3-12). Here the p-ketoester and aldehyde reagents were impregnated onto a 5 1 bentonite clay-ammonium nitrate mixture. Irradiation for 5 min in a domestic MW oven, followed by washing the product off the support into a receiver daughter plate gave substituted-pyridine products in >70% purity overall. 

Take solid explosives as an example to explain the influence of toxic gases by oxygen balance in explosion. Table 2.12 lists the experimental data of toxic gases released from explosion of ammonium nitrate mixtures. 

Liquid fertilizers commonly used are UAN (urea and ammonium nitrate mixture) containing 28, 30, and 32 mass% N anhydrous ammonia, which contains 82 mass% N superphosphoric acid, which is a concentrated form of phosphoric acid with a grade of 0-70-0 and ammonia reacted with superphosphoric acid to produce a liquid fertilizer of 10-34-0 or 11-37-0 grade. Different liquid grades of fertilizer can be produced using a variety of chemicals for grades similar to the dry fertilizer grades. 

Nitroguanidine explosives Nitronium perchlorate propellant mixtures Nitroparaffins (explosive grade) and ammonium nitrate mixtures... 

Biquard M, Letellier P, Fromon M (1985) Vapor pressure in the water-ammonium nitrate mixture at 298.15 K. Thermodynamic properties of the water-fused salt system. Can J Chem 63 3587-3595... 

This is the most powerful Ammonium Nitrate mixture. It s power = 2 TNT. It will produce a very strong light, spark, and will shake the earth. 

---