prometheus1970 - 30-4-2010 at 20:43
Does anybody know how to get pentaerythritol from erythritol (for making petn instead of etn)? Or is ETN close enough to petn powerwise that it's not
worth it?
Peroxid - 30-4-2010 at 21:52
You can't synth pentaerythritol from erythritol! You can make pentaerythritol from reaction of acetaldehyde with formaldehyde in presence some basic
(Cannizzaro reaction).
not_important - 30-4-2010 at 22:12
Quite true. If prom1970 had troubled themselves to do a tiny bit of research, they would have notice that is a 1,2,3,4 tetra hydroxy butane, a linear
carbon chain, while pentaerythritol is tetramethylolmethane, a five carbon compound with a cross-shaped carbon chain.
quicksilver - 1-5-2010 at 05:59
There are different "grades" of pentaerythritol & that becomes very significant. It is commonly used in mfg vinyl & vinyl paint - the drums of
tech-grade stuff used in that industry is very poorly purified (possibly as low as 92%), etc. The Germans demanded that a "Grade-M" be the only
pentaerythritol used for energetic materials in the EU, NATO countries have a spec as does the USA with a MIL-spec reagent grade. Often the junk finds
it's way to market outlets in small amounts because someone bought a drum of paint-grade crap & sold it in small amounts to make a tidy profit.
The paint-grade pentaerythritol is quite cheap. The 30lbs drums going for less than $100 after being transported from African/Asian chemical plants.