Hexanitrodiphenyl sulphone

6 -Hexanitrodiphenyl sulphone (m. p. 307°C, decomposition) forms yellowish crystals difficult to dissolve in most organic solvents. 

In 1912 Sprengstoff A. G. Carbonit [17] was granted a patent for a method of preparation of this explosive, consisting in reacting hexanitrodiphenyl sulphide with nitric acid. Since picryl chloride, as the starting material for picryl sulphide was rather expensive, another method of preparation of hexanitrodiphenyl sulphone, via tetranitrodiphenyl sulphide, was also used. The latter was obtained by treating chlorodinitrobenzene with sodium thiosulphate. Then it was nitrated and oxidized simultaneously with nitric acid to hexanitrodiphenyl sulphone  

During World War I the compound was used by the Germans in mixtures with TNT and sometimes also with ammonium nitrate for filling bombs. 

Hexanitrodiphenyl sulphone proved to be a stable compound. According to van Duin and van Lennep [8], it withstands heating at 95°C for 30 days. Its initiation temperature is 297-308°C depending on the rate of heating. 

It is a more powerful explosive than hexyl or picryl sulphide, mainly due to a more favourable oxygen balance, and also surpasses picric acid. Its sensitivity to impact is of the order of tetryl. 

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Polynitro derivatives of diphensi ether Pen t a ni trod i phenyl ether Hexanitrodiphenyl ether Nitro derivatives of various phenolic ethers Hexanitro diphenyl sulphide Hexanitrodiphenyl sulphone Literature... 

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