Hexogen—

Cyclonite or hexogen (RDX) was first prepared in 1899 and was initially recommended for medical use. Later applications (1916) included its use as a smokeless propellant. During World War II, Germany manufactured 7,0001 of RDX per month, whereas the US production was more than twice this rate. 

This substance was the explosive of choice in the last world war. It is prepared by the reaction of ammonia with formaldehyde to form hexamethylenetetramine that when nitrated forms RDX with tetramethylene tetranitramine (HMX) as a by-product  

The fuels listed in Table 14.5 are practical propellants. More exotic choices such as diborane, B2H6 acetylene, C2H2 ozone, O3 oxygen difluoride, OF2 and nitrogen trifluoride, NF3 are a few examples. 

Solid propellants usually consist of ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3), ammonium perchlorate (NH4CIO4), and aluminum powder bound in a resin of polystyrene, polyurethane, or polybutadiene. Specific impulse values of 250-300 s are achieved depending on the choice of fuel and oxidizer. 

Explosives and deflagrators are used in a variety of applications which include propellants, fireworks or pyrotechnics, welding, riveting, and cladding. 

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Hexamine — see Hexamethylenetetramine 1,4,7,10,13,16-Hexaoxacyclooctadecane — see [18]Crown-6 Hexazinone as herbicide, 1, 187 Hex-2-enopyranoside, 2,3-dideoxy-synthesis, 1, 464 Hexobarbital, 3, 150 Hexogen, 3, 530 a-D-galacto- Hexopyranose nomenclature, 1, 31 Qf-D-ido-Hexopyranose nomenclature, 1, 31... 

Onit. The name, now obsolete, used by AB Bofors, Nobelkrut, Bofors, Sweden, prior to WWII, to designate Hexogen (Cyclonite or RDX) as the basic material used in Bonits (see Vol 2, B242-R)... 

Lehr, Sensitivity of Triol, Hexogen, Penthrite and Ammonium Nitrate Against Heating , SbVedPraci, VysokaSkolaChem-Technol, Pardubio Pt 1, 195-201 (1961) CA 58, 5443 (1963)... 

Hexogen, that was submitted to the action of calcium hydroxide in the presence of water, started to decompose at 100°C, causing its ignition and then its detonation. 

Compound 225 can be recrystallized from a large volume of water but gradually decomposes into starting materials, especially in the presence of aqueous mineral acids in a process similar to that for hexamethylenetetramine. When treated with concentrated nitric acid, it yields hexogen (cyclotrimethylenetrinitroamine, an explosive).245 Similar properties can be expected for 226, which is characterized by its high toxicity.246... 

The other factories, however, made products that had no large peacetime use, such as the explosives-intermediate hexogen. The total production was financed by the Wehrmacht. The factories were built exclusively for war Farben insisted on this form of financing because "the production is war material and no assured peacetime market can be expected." Farben refused the use of its name. To many Germans, and to many more people in the outside world, these Farben-Wehrmacht factories were known simply by the names of the cities where they were located. 

The ethylene oxide had many uses for the Krauch-Schneider-Buetefisch Sparte. It was also the silent, colorless assistant of the Ter Meer Sparte. Ter Meer s pharmaceutical division could take the excess methanol, produced by Schneider for his anti-freezes and fuels, and turn it into shaving lotions and liniments. Methanol could be converted, in solid forms, to two deadly explosives — nitropenta and hexogen. And Ter Meer could make glycol (Prestone) react doubly with itself to produce diglycol, an intermediate in the manufacture of explosives. 

Among the important war chemicals, second only to nitrogen was the methanol which was already being wafted eastward in the imaginations of Krauch and Ambros and Ter Meer. The methanol went to Dynamit A.G. at Troisdorf and Kummer, where it was converted into the two deadliest and latest explosives — hexogen and nitropenta. 

Die dem Hexogen entsprechende Nitrosoverbindung entsteht aus He-xamethylentetramin durch Behandlung mit Alkalinitraten in verdiinnt saurer Losung. 

Es ist ein guter Gelatinator fur Nitrocellulose und ein kraftiger Spreng-stoff, dem Hexogen und Nitropenta vergleichbar. 

Sprengstoffe aus knappen Rohstoffen eingesetzt worden. Sie be-durfen jedoch im allgemeinen des Zusatzes von brisanten Spreng-stoffen, wie Hexogen Oder anderen. 

Hexamethylentetramindinitrat kann man aus Hexamethylentetramin und Salpetersaure von mittlerer Konzentration herstellen. Es bildet ein wichtiges Vorprodukt von Hexogen nach dem KA-Verfahren. 

Hexogen ist in Wasser nahezu unloslich, in Ether und Alkohol schwer, in heilJem Benzol etwas loslich, reichlicher in Aceton, Cyclohexanon, in Nitrobenzol und in Glykol bei hoheren Temperaturen. 

E-Verfahren Paraformaldehyd und Ammonsalpeter werden mit Essigsaureanhydrid zu Hexogen umgesetzt (Vorlaufer des KA-Verfah-rens). 

W-Verfahren Amidosulfosaures Kalium und Formaldehyd werden zu methylenamidosulfonsaurem Kalium (CH2=N-S03K) umgesetzt, dieses ergibt bei Nitrierung mit Mischsaure Hexogen. 

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