So I made around 8g ETN about a week ago using 98% reagent grade Sulfuric acid, 99+% Potassium nitrate, and Recrystallized Erythritol. I washed the
final product quite a bit as I get paranoid of purity, 4 times with water, 2 times with bicarb. solution, and 2 more times with water. (pH at around
6.5) I let it dry and recrystallized from methanol, leaving a whole lot of 1mm long needle crystals. A few tests show it works well and it is quite
stable, I was not able to detonate it from hammer impact, however wrapped in Aluminum foil, 50mg was enough to make a considerable bang.
(pic removed, will add another later)
I looked back at the vial, and the vial was saturated with Nitrogen dioxide... the ETN looked yellow, I opened the vial and blew out the NO2 and now
it's a white crystalline powder again.
But what went wrong? I thought neutralized, recrystallized ETN has a long shelf life? I tried detonating a small amount again and only got a pop this
time.
Any ideas?
[Edited on 6-29-2014 by numos]
[Edited on 6-29-2014 by numos]NeonPulse - 28-6-2014 at 18:25
Strange.Was pure erythritol used or was it the truvia product you recrystallized? Truvia contains a lot of stevia, so maybe it was also nitrated along
with the erythritol and maybe harder to remove the acid from. how hot was the temp where it was stored. The cause could be residual acid but it sounds
like you washed it pretty well. Was the NO2 present after only one weeks storage?numos - 28-6-2014 at 19:44
Truvia was recrystallized for this, and it was stored at room temp, or around 80oF. I least checked 4 days ago and there was nothing, since then I
haven't looked at it until today.NeonPulse - 28-6-2014 at 22:58
You might want to consider removing that photo and edit out some details there as it looks like you took the pic with paperwork underneath that could
possibility identify you if someone tried hard enough.
Another question. Is this the only batch you have made using the truvia product? DoD others turn out ok if you did?
[Edited on 29-6-2014 by NeonPulse]
[Edited on 29-6-2014 by NeonPulse]hissingnoise - 29-6-2014 at 03:17
Quote:
I least checked 4 days ago and there was nothing, since then I haven't looked at it until today.
You might also consider ridding yourself of the unstable nitrate before further decomposition (which could make it dangerous to handle) occurs . . .
Getting it into a large volume of water should be your first step!
Ral123 - 29-6-2014 at 05:16
I never imagined ETN can be made so bad. Cool the jar, to -20 and blow it up. Never make ETN with that materials/process again. plante1999 - 29-6-2014 at 05:19
ETN is not a good EM anyway, one is better with nitroglycerin, PETN and mannitol hexanitrate in the nitrate esters. hissingnoise - 29-6-2014 at 07:13
If mixed acid is used in its nitration, ETN is better than NGL in that it's a solid . . .
