Hey Buddy
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Amino Acid Ionic and Metal Complex Explosives
I made a previous thread on some probing of amino acid based explosives. https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=15...
It is titled under "glycine perchlorate" which was the origin topic but expanded in scope. A dedicated thread on the topic is more suitable.
Aspartic acid nitrate was able to melt NQ which was interesting but resulted in a hygroscopic cast. I have recently been experimenting with positive
charge side chain amino acids that can hold two anions. Arginine seems to form a dinitrate which is a waxy solid material similar to casted ETN. It
melts below 80 C. It is also apparently non-hygroscopic. It melts NQ at least in a 1:1 ratio but NQ content can be pushed more beyond that.
20 g of arginine was reacted with 2.1 mol equivalent 67.2% HNO3. HNO3 was put into a beaker and arginine slowly added with stirring. The arginine
dissolves in the acid and the temperature increases to just above 50 C. This was stirred for at least 15 minutes. At the end of stirring, the material
solidified and was then melted without drying on a hot plate at 125C. The material melts into a syrup and low density NQ needles were added with
stirring until the mix became too thick to magnetically stir. Manual stirring was used to add slightly more than 1:1 w/w ratio of NQ into the melt.
The melt became quite thick and difficult to stir. The melt was removed from heat and cooled for a minute or two before being rolled into a ball. The
consistency was approximate to a dense dough. The sample dried overnight and in the next afternoon was set solid like PVC or other cured hard plastic.
The sample happened to weigh 50.01 g exactly. This wasn't intentional.
The sample showed no sign if hygroscopicity unlike other amino acid melts that have been tried in the past. It was dry and rock hard to the touch.
The sample was primed with a 1.1 g base charge PETN cap which failed to detonate the melt cast charge. It appears that a booster charge is necessary
to detonate NQ when it is melted into higher density. Not surprising but noted.
The highlights of this experiment were:
-Melt cast carrier of simple preparation to melt NQ was learned of
-The amino acid ionic carrier appears substantially non-hygroscopic.
-Arginine does appear to accept two nitrate groups with industrial strength acid.
-Reaction is mild and uneventful.
-Melt casted NQ is difficult to detonate with conventional powered caps alone.
[Edited on 20-10-2024 by Hey Buddy]
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Hey Buddy
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Microtek
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That is very interesting. Hygroscopicity has been the main problem when I have examined promising ionic energetics such as urazine perchlorate and
many others as well. Have you tried the perchlorate salt yet?
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Hey Buddy
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Quote: Originally posted by Microtek  | | That is very interesting. Hygroscopicity has been the main problem when I have examined promising ionic energetics such as urazine perchlorate and
many others as well. Have you tried the perchlorate salt yet? |
I have not. I'm realizing now I need to further test this melt. It doesn't burn energetically at all and smells terrible when burned. I'm worried it
may be inert as a material. Will try some standalone tests to determine if it can detonate alone. Perchlorate would be much better I Presume.
I also tried a citrulline dinitrate and it is an ionic liquid which isn't of interest to me for now but wanted to make a note of it. The reaction is
uneventful and it is a thin syrup with a slight yellow tint color.
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Etanol
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Arginine dinitrate has a very poor oxygen balance. It is not surprising that it does not work. Try melting arginine dinitrate with ammonium nitrate at
zero oxygen balance, then agitating and cooling it simultaneously. I think the resulting mix will be capable of detonation.
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Hey Buddy
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| Quote: Originally posted by Etanol | | Arginine dinitrate has a very poor oxygen balance. It is not surprising that it does not work. Try melting arginine dinitrate with ammonium nitrate at
zero oxygen balance, then agitating and cooling it simultaneously. I think the resulting mix will be capable of detonation. |
It does detonate on its own, if it were OB with ammonium nitrate I'm sure it would detonate too. As it is, its low velocity and gets fade out in small
critical diameters. The first ball was even more insensitive, having melted nitro guanidine, it would require probably a 5 g booster, maybe even more.
There is a very strong bad smell from detonation.
ANGC glycine is probably much more efficient and cheaper.
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Hey Buddy
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I have been experimenting more with ANGC, and I must say, for its simplicity it is quite effective as a melt cast carrier. I tested small melt
samples, Nitroguanidine melts in a 1:1 ratio. PETN easily melts in a 4:1 ratio. Both materials form a brown paste on melt. This color appears to have
nothing to do with destructive decomposition or loss of nitrates. Monitoring some samples for storability or decomp now over long term. I suspect the
higher ratio Glycine ANGC formulations with lower mp would actually hold a greater mass of NQ or PETN.
 
[Edited on 21-11-2024 by Hey Buddy]
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Microtek
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What is the composition you term ANGC?
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underground
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Ammonium nitrate 94% and Glycine 6%
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Hey Buddy
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https://patents.google.com/patent/US4746380A/en
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pjig
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Is the main allure a melt cast carrier for a an based material? Or does this glycine provide more power as a fuel than other options as per cost
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pjig
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How much additional energetic material (pe or etn or other energetic HE) can be incorporated in this mix?
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dettoo456
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| Quote: Originally posted by pjig | Is the main allure a melt cast carrier for a an based material? Or does this glycine provide more power as a fuel than other options as per cost
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The patent linked by Hey Buddy explains the mixture quite concisely. The glycine acts as both a fuel and eutectic counterpart to the AN.
In a mix with other EM or metal fuels (be very careful with melt-cast metal EM mixes), the low-melting-point material is usually required to be at
least 1/3 of the total weight. This however doesn’t always suffice, as solubility of other EMs in the melted EM is variable.
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Hey Buddy
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| Quote: Originally posted by pjig | | How much additional energetic material (pe or etn or other energetic HE) can be incorporated in this mix? |
All of the amino acid ionic salts melt common EMs but they are all at different rates. Metal complexes of amino acids change the properties
dramatically. For ANGC, the ratio of 15% glycine melts at a pretty low temp <120 C. PETN dissolves at least 4/1. At that ratio it starts coming out
of melt similar to COMP B. Comp B is typically around a 60% RDX load, which is where RDX begins to saturate the melt. ANGC/PETN is an 80% load of
PETN. It is non-hygroscopic. The density is increased by adding the PETN into the melt. The melt can be loaded into charges. IMO, ETN is not
appropriate for this purpose. ETN should not be manipulated in the melt phase due to sensitivity, and its decomposition temperature is low enough to
easily decompose if there are hot spots in the melt.
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pjig
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Very interesting material indeed . Has a lot going for it. Wouldn’t a simple sugar sucrose serve a similar purpose. I’m sure not as good , but
it begs the question
[Edited on 5-12-2024 by pjig]
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