CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS nitroglycerin

Sulfuric acid is not all bad. In fact, it has many useful functions. One of those is to make nitroglycerin. Nitroglycerin is needed to make explosives like dynamite, but it is also used as a medicine. This dual-purpose chemical compound was discovered by Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero (1812-1888) in 1847. 

Figure 1.3 Nitroglycerin is a chemical compound used to make explosions such as the one at right, generated during a reenactment of an oil well being shot with a nitroglycerin torpedo. It can also be used as a medicine to relieve chest pain.

Liquid and volatile nitric esters, being safer to handle and more stable chemically than nitroglycerine or diethylene glycol dinitrate (DGDN), can be employed as monopropellant jet fuels. Among these compounds methyl nitrate should be mention-... 

Nitroglycerine, the chemical compound that led to Alfred Nobel s fortune, is also used for the treatment of heart conditions. What does this illustrate about the versatility of many chemical compounds Are the risks and benefits associated with the use of nitroglycerin as an explosive the same as for using it to treat angina, a heart condition ... 

Of the eight nonmetals listed in Table 21.1, nitrogen is by far the least reactive. Its inertness is due to the strength of the triple bond holding the N2 molecule together (B.E. N=N = 941 kj/mol). This same factor explains why virtually all chemical explosives are compounds of nitrogen (e.g., nitroglycerin, trinitrotoluene, ammonium nitrate,... 

In section 5.2, you used a coffee-cup calorimeter to determine the quantity of heat that was released or absorbed in a chemical reaction. Coffee-cup calorimeters are generally used only for dilute aqueous solutions. There are many non-aqueous chemical reactions, however. There are also many reactions that release so much energy they are not safe to perform using a coffee-cup calorimeter. Imagine trying to determine the enthalpy of reaction for the detonation of nitroglycerin, an unstable and powerfully explosive compound. Furthermore, there are reactions that occur too slowly for the calorimetric method to be practical. (You will learn more about rates of reactions in the next chapter.)... 

Table 4.1 gives the use profile for ammonia. It can be applied directly for fertilizer or made into other nitrogen-containing compounds used for fertilizer such as urea, ammonium nitrate, ammonium phosphate, ammonium sulfate, and nitric acid. Overall approximately 80% of ammonia has an end use as fertilizer. Explosives, a second important end use, made from ammonia are ammonium nitrate and, via nitric acid, the nitroglycerin used in dynamite. Chemical intermediates include acrylonitrile and caprolactam, which eventually go into fibers. 

By determining their chemical stability and ignition temperature, e.g. the stability of nitroglycerine- or PETN-, or nitrocellulose-nitro compound mixtures (Vol. IT, pp. 49, 181 and Vol. Ill, p. 566, respectively) [7],... 

Butane-1,2,4-triol trinitrate, also called nitrobutanetriol , is a good solvent of collodion cotton. It is less volatile than nitroglycerine and a chemically stable compound. Its explosive strength is not much inferior to that of nitroglycerine. Its heat of explosion is 1440 kcal/kg [1],... 

In propellant chemistry, especially so in the case of nitrocellulose-containing powders, the stabilizers employed are compounds which, owing to their chemical structure, prevent the acid-catalyzed decomposition of nitrocellulose, nitroglycerine, and similar nitrate esters. 

A series of studies described in the present chapter has been performed on the assumption that only high explosives are the chemicals of the true AC type. In this regard, however, it is very probable that there exist chemicals, other than high explosives, which decompose in accordance with the autocatalytic reaction mechanism. Besides, although it is quite certain that nitrate esters, such as nitroglycerine and nitrocellulose, decompose in accordance with the autocatalytic reaction mechanism, it is beyond the scope of the present document to discuss whether nucleus-substituted polynitro compounds, such as tetryl, TNT and picric acid, also decompose in accordance with the same mechanism or not. Some other possibilities are, therefore, also suggested herein for the decomposition reaction mechanisms of a few high explosives, respectively. 

Peanut seeds contain about 50% oil and 25% protein and provide about 2600 cal/lb. The compounds found in peanuts are used in paints, varnishes, lubricating oils, leather dressings, furniture polish, insecticides, and nitroglycerine. Soaps are made from the saponified oil as well as several cosmetic bases. The protein fraction is used in the textile fibers Ardil and Sarelon. The shells are used in plastics, wallboard, abrasives, and as a fuel. The chemicals furfural, xylose, cellulose, and mucilage are obtained from peanuts. The tops are used for hay, and the press cake is used for animal feed and fertilizer. 

Because the technique relies on thermal decomposition of nitro-containing explosives, and no prior chromatographic separation is performed, no chemical information of the studied material is obtained. Currently, the unit will alarm on compounds such as RDX, PETN, TNT, urea nitrate, ammonium nitrate, nitroglycerine, EGDN and DMNB. 

Nitrogen has long been a component of chemical explosives (Safra and Goulka 1997). Black powder, invented by the Chinese about 1000 years ago is a mixture of potassium nitrate (saltpetre), sulfur and charcoal. More recently, nitrogen-containing organic compounds (e.g., trinitrotoluene or TNT, nitroglycerin, and picric acid plus... 

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