SALTS OF NITRIC ACID Ammonium nitrate

There are also salts of nitric acid that demonstrate explosive properties. This group consists both of inorganic nitrates such as ammonium nitrate, and of organic nitrates. Despite their marked explosive properties these substances are usually used only as ingredients of explosive mixtures. 

Ammonium nitrate is the most readily available and cheapest salt of nitric acid, now manufactured wholly from synthetic ammonia and from nitric acid obtained by oxidation of ammonia. Ammonium nitrate was prepared for the first time as early as in 1659 by Glauber. The original experiments with it as a component of explosive mixtures began in the second half of the nineteenth century. Ammonium nitrate is the most widely used oxygen carrier, since it is an ingredient of the commonest group of high explosives. The reasons for this are to be seen in its properties and those of its explosive mixtures appreciable chemical stability, and low sensitiveness to friction and to shock. 

The disadvantage of ammonium nitrate, which limits its application, is its hygro-scopicity. 

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