Sensitiveness nitroglycerine

Because of its high sensitivity, nitroglycerine in the pure form is rarely used as an explosive. It is mostly desensitized for its commercial applications, as in dynamite (see Section 40.3). Bosch and Pereira... 

C. Boyars, "Sensitivity and Desensitization of Nitroglycerin," ia Proceedings of 2nd Symposium on Chemical Problems Connected with the Stability of... 

Nitroglycerin is a shock-sensitive liquid that detonates by the reaction... 

Ammonium nitrate is the cheapest source of oxygen available for commercial explosives at the present time. It is used by itself in conjunction with fuels, or to give more sensitive explosives in admixture with solid fuels and sensitisers such as nitroglycerine and TNT. It is, therefore, a compound of particular importance for the explosives industry. 

In other explosives of a gelatine type some form of combustible is normally present. Most combustibles contain pores which hold air and they also assist mechanically in the trapping of air bubbles in the explosive. As a result, the lower the nitroglycerine content of a gelatine explosive, the easier it is to obtain adequate sensitiveness to commercial detonators. In the particularly difficult cases such as the higher strength gelignite... 

Before nitrates and particularly ammonium nitrate were readily available commercially, explosives were developed based on chlorates and perchlorates. These also are still used in some countries. In general perchlorates are considered less dangerous than chlorates and therefore preferred. They are easily sensitised, so that in addition to explosives of this type based on nitroglycerine, others have been based on various organic liquids, particularly nitrobodies. History shows that chlorates and perchlorates must be regarded as temperamental substances, liable in bulk to lead to inexplicable accidents. Particularly when mixtures of chlorates and oxidising materials are allowed to become wet and then dry out, conditions can arise in which there is an appreciable sensitiveness to friction and impact. Explosives of this type have an unfortunate record of accidents. They are used, therefore, to a limited extent only, now that safer compositions are available. 

Nitro Compounds, Feuer H. Nielsen A. T. (Eds), New York, VCH, 1990, 315 The crude product is too explosive to be worked up. Analogy with other olefins indicates that the final product will be ethylene glycol dinitrate, a known explosive though safe enough to have largely replaced nitroglycerine. That will be preceded by 1,2-dinitroethane and nitratonitroethane, more sensitive if less powerful. 

Uncertainty factor 3 severe headaches are known to occur in angina patients medicated with nitroglycerin and the threshold for vasodilatation does not vary greatly among individuals. The effect was also a threshold effect for central nervous systems depression (no change in cognitive abilities slight imbalance in one of several sensitive motor tests). Individual variation in susceptibility to central nervous system depressants such as anesthetics varies no more than 2-fold. 

Intraspecies 3—no unusually susceptible populations were identified. Because the time and concentration values were based on a threshold, these concentrations were adjusted by an uncertainty factor of 3 to account for differences in human sensitivity. More severe headaches are often experienced by heart patients medicated with nitroglycerin for angina and these concentrations are far below those inducing methemoglobinemia in infants. ... 

Fortunately, explosives have an activation energy, so it takes some energy to get the reaction started. Usually, what starts the reaction is heat, but it can be a physical shock for especially sensitive explosives like liquid nitroglycerin. 

The adduct ions as found with nitroglycerin (NG) are sensitive to temperature and can be seen at 100°C and below. However, the lifetime for the adduct ion is decreased as the temperature is increased and only the fragment NO , per Eq. (4) is observed with NG in analyzers where drift tube temperatures are 125°C or greater. Other ions seen in IMS from explosives include NO3 or M-NOs and may arise from reactions between NO2 with 02 or N02 with O2. 

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