Silver potassium fulminate

Rosenberg [63] investigated the properties of sodium, potassium, calcium, strontium, barium, cadmium, cupric, copper, manganese, thallium and silver fulminates and compared them with mercury fulminate. Some of this results are shown in Table 24. 

The potassium salt, KCHaN3Oa, crystallizes from 80% ale in brilliant, steel-blue ndls, which dec at 21 ° or expl at 220°(Refs 1 2). Its aq soln treated with aq AgNO, and HNOs yields the very explosive silver fulminate... 

Silver fulminate is insoluble in nitric acid, and is decomposed by hydrochloric acid. It darkens on exposure to light. One liter of water at 13° dissolves 0.075 gram of the salt, and at 30° 0.18 gram. The double fulminate of silver and potassium, AgONOKONC, is soluble in 8 parts of boiling water. 

Berthollet s fulminating silver is produced by addition of alcohol to a concentrated solution of silver monoxide in ammonium hydroxide. It forms small, black crystals, exploded by friction, and soluble in potassium-cyanide solution. It probably has the formula NAgs or NAgH2 2 and it has no connexion with silver fulminate, C.-N.O.Ag. 

Amorce is a French word that means cap, primer, detonator, or fuse, terms that differ from the English usage of amorce used to describe the toy caps used in toy pistols or thrown down sharply in play. They contain extremely small quantities (around Img) of shock sensitive explosive mixtures of potassium chlorate and arsenic monosulphide or silver fulminate. Trick matches are toys that are extremely difficult to blow out. 

It is further soluble in alkali cyanides, pyridine, and potassium iodide. Thiosulphate decomposes SF in a similar manner to that of mercury fulminate and may be used for nonexplosive decomposition of this substance. SF is insoluble in nitric add [28, 35]. Alike MF, silver fulminate reacts with concentrated hydrochloric acid. This... 

Peroxides, organic Phosphorus (white) Potassium chlorate Potassium perchlorate Potassium permanganate Silver Acids (organic or mineral), avoid friction, store cold Air, oxygen Acids (see also chlorates) Acids (see also perchloric acid) Glycerol, ethylene glycol, benzaldehyde, sulphuric acid Acetylene, oxalic acid, tartaric acid, fulminic acid (produced in ethanol — nitric acid mixtures), ammonium compounds... 

Fulminating silver is the most violently explosive compound among the nitrogen derivatives of the noble metals. Formed from action of ammonia on silver oxide, or on addition of potassium hydroxide to an ammoniacal solution of a silver salt, it is a black powder which explodes violently in the liquid in which it is formed if the slightest stirring is used. It probably contains amminesilver hydroxides, [Ag(NH3),]OH. 

The metal fulminates are all powerfully explosive. Of several salts examined, those of cadmium, copper and silver were more powerful detonators than mercury fulminate, while thallium fulminate was much more sensitive to heating and impact. Formally related salts are also explosive [1]. Sodium, potassium, rubidium and caesium fulminates are all easily detonated by feeble friction or heat. They all form double salts with mercury(II) fulminate which also explode readily, that of the rubidium salt at 45 °C [2],... 

Singh [1] has examined infra-red spectra of mercuric, silver and lead fulminates, and Beck [2] those of sodium and potassium fulminates. The maxima 2147 and 1225 cm-1 were found to be characteristic of asymmetric and symmetric vibrations of the O—N—C group, respectively. The maximum 1181 cm-1 was assigned to the bending frequency of the same group [1]. Beck also found that the transient formation of an isomeric ion eN=C—O can occur on thermal decomposition of fulminates. 

Comparing with the experiments of Grant and Tiffany [40] Harris states that silver and barium nitrocyanamides show an initiation capacity the same as that of an 80 20 mixture of mercury fulminate and potassium chlorate, but weaker than that of a mixture of lead azide and lead styphnate. This can be seen from Table 38 quoted by Harris ... 

In the Journal de physique for 1779 the apothecary, Bayen, described a fulminating mercurial preparation of another kind. Thirty parts of precipitated, yellow oxide of mercury, washed and dried, was mixed with 4 or 5 parts of sulfur the mixture exploded with violence when struck with a heavy hammer or when heated on an iron plate. Other mixtures which react explosively when initiated by percussion have been studied more recently,2 metallic sodium or potassium in contact with the oxide or the chloride of silver or of mercury or in contact with chloroform or carbon tetrachloride. 

See Mercury(II) cyanate, Potassium cyanate, Silver cyanate See also FULMINATING METALS... 

The heavy metal pseudohtilides fall in this group since covalent forces are partially present. The structural parameters listed in Table 4 show that thallous azide, fulminate and cycmate are isostructural with the tetragonal alkali metal salts, while thallous thiocyanate is isostructural with the room temperature phase of potassium thiocyanate. The lattice constants of the salts axe all indicative of abnormally short metal-anion distances. The silver salts form an interesting series where the subtle interactions which result as a function of the electron affinity, electronic structure and size of the anions, stimulate somewhat predictable variations of crystal geometry. Silver azide is an example of a distortion of the tetragonal D4 (Fig. 1) lattice due to covalent metal-emion interaction which lowers the space symmetry of the crystal to D2 (29), while silver thiocyanate is mainly covalent with bidentate metal-anion chains... 

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