Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Silver Acetylide DS storage

golfpro - 22-8-2013 at 18:12

Hi,

I am thinking the best way to store silver acetylide double salt (1-4 grams) is under clean distilled water in a plastic sealed container in a dark cool environment. It is more dense than water so it all sinks nicely to the bottom.

Any problem here?

Dany - 22-8-2013 at 18:59

Yes you can store it under water, but be careful to avoid acidic solution and keep the container away from light. Also, do not store big quantity of this sensitive explosive.

Dany.

Mailinmypocket - 23-8-2013 at 06:52

Storing it under acetone also works, and it dries much quicker when you need a little bit...

Fantasma4500 - 24-8-2013 at 05:07

with acetone you might want to consider what container youre using, as acetone easily and quickly evaporates (got approx. 200g PS stuck in a jar, cant seal it off properly)
otherwise dry storage away from UV should be sufficient, perhaps have it a cold place and then put a ceramics cup over the paper or whatever you store it on / in

NeonPulse - 24-8-2013 at 17:07

You may want to consider multiple containers, all away from eachother say at
1-2 g in each. That's how I keep mine. Little specimen containers from the pharmacy with black tape covering them and under distilled water. Just take out how much you need to dry a day or so before its needed and your good to go. Never store dry, as static could be a problem and you don't want it all to go off at once. The first time I tested my SA DS I had no idea it was so loud and lit 200mg. Never again..my ears were ringing for hours.

golfpro - 25-8-2013 at 07:31

I made SA*DS once and got 300mg, because my homemade bubbling apparatus failed, the heat from the calcium carbide water reaction caused the epoxy to melt in the seals preventing the gas from bubbling through the nitric acid/silver nitrate, I've redesigned it though.

Here is my procedure:

I first dissolve 2 grams Ag in 25ml 40%nitric acid, and then add this to 25ml distilled water in a 50ml erlenmeyer, I know this isn't as efficient as a graduated cylinder, but I don't have one. I have a sealed jar with 10g CaC2, and the lid has two tubes connected and sealed, one for injecting water into the jar, the other is the tube leading into the erlenmeyer for the gas to escape. I'd like not to have to do this synth every time I want a cap (300mg yield each time) so I am hoping I can get better yield next time I try (2 grams) and store this.

Dany - 25-8-2013 at 08:15

golfpro,

if your are wasting silver for making SADS detonator, this mean you can try to make mercury fulminate instead. It is easy to synthesis and a powerful initiating explosive. All waht you need is mercury, nitric acid and ordinary ethanol (no need for dehydrated ethanol). Mercury fulminate was used in the past in detonator but replaced by lead azide because of it's toxicity. A mixture of 90/10 mercury fulminate/potassium chlorate is a good example of powerful initiating explosive for detonator applications.

Dany.

golfpro - 25-8-2013 at 10:43

Don't have mercury, what I've been doing is ripping pieces off of a silver dollar.

NeonPulse - 25-8-2013 at 17:05

Quote: Originally posted by Dany  
golfpro,

if your are wasting silver for making SADS detonator, this mean you can try to make mercury fulminate instead. It is easy to synthesis and a powerful initiating explosive. All waht you need is mercury, nitric acid and ordinary ethanol (no need for dehydrated ethanol). Mercury fulminate was used in the past in detonator but replaced by lead azide because of it's toxicity. A mixture of 90/10 mercury fulminate/potassium chlorate is a good example of powerful initiating explosive for detonator applications.

Dany.

I agree, it is a pretty weak initiator but I find it good to use in a cap combined with etn but by itself is pretty weak, mercury fulminate is much stronger and very easy to synth. I guess the cost would be high per cap if you could only source mercury from thermometers and switches. I got lucky there and got 6 big old thermometers from a yard sale very cheap each with 5 or so grams Hg in it.

golfpro - 25-8-2013 at 19:21

300mg SADS/700mg ETN can't possibly go wrong in a cap, from what I hear an efficient reaction creates a reasonable amount of it from a reasonable amount of silver nitrate.

The only drawback I see with this is 300mg SADS won't detonate RDX in a cap, RDX is a better base charge for a cap.

kafer96 - 31-8-2013 at 12:05

I would not recommend to store your SADS under water because the amount of Ag2C2*AgNO3 molecules will gradually decrease and the amount of Ag2C2 will increase. Latter is much less powerful, but much more sensitive. So it would be better to store it dry (if small amount) or under ethanol/acetone.