Mercury fulminate: Difference between revisions
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'''Mercury fulminate''', Hg(ONC)<sub>2</sub>, is an explosive that is highly sensitive to shock, and used to initiate processes leading to the detonation of a [[explosives|high explosive]] or a explosive-based propellant. While it is powerful and relatively easy to prepare, it has been replaced, in manufactured ammunition and explosives, principally by [[lead azide]] preparations. | '''Mercury fulminate''', Hg(ONC)<sub>2</sub>, is an explosive that is highly sensitive to shock, and used to initiate processes leading to the detonation of a [[explosives|high explosive]] or a explosive-based propellant. While it is powerful and relatively easy to prepare, it has been replaced, in manufactured ammunition and explosives, principally by [[lead azide]] preparations, which have better storage properties and are not quite as shock-sensitive. | ||
It is a salt of fulminic or paracyanic acid, which polymerizes very rapidly in both aqueous and ethereal solutions, and so cannot be isolated. The structure of fulminic acid, and thus the salts of this acid, is undetermined. Anhydrous mercury fulminate has a | It was first synthesized in 1800 and patented as a primer in 1807, and designed into a [[blasting cap]] by [[Alfred Nobel]] in 1867. <ref name=ExplTM>{{citation | ||
molecular weight of 284.65, or, as the hydrate, 293.64. | | id = TM 9-1300-214 | ||
| publisher = [[U.S. Department of the Army]] | |||
| date = September 1984 | title = Military Explosives}}, pp. 2-4 to 2-6}}</ref> | |||
==Chemistry== | |||
It is a salt of fulminic or paracyanic acid, which polymerizes very rapidly in both aqueous and ethereal solutions, and so cannot be isolated. The crystal structure of the salt was finally characterized in 2007. <ref>{{citation | |||
| title = Mercury Fulminate Revealed: Researchers finally determine X-ray structure of infamous explosive | |||
| author = Elizabeth K. Wilson | |||
| journal = Chemical and Engineering News | |||
| url = http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/85/i36/8536notw7.html | |||
| date = 19 August 2007}}</ref> The structure of fulminic acid, and thus the salts of this acid, is undetermined. Anhydrous mercury fulminate has a molecular weight of 284.65, or, as the hydrate, 293.64.<ref>''Military Explosives'', pp. 7-5 to 7-8</ref> | |||
To produce it, widely available chemicals are the principal feedstocks: elemental [[mercury]], [[nitric acid]] and [[ethanol]]. Even industrial synthesis is on a relatively small batch scale, and [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]]s have produced it in primitive conditions, although with occasional catastrophic accidents. | |||
==References== | |||
{{reflist|2}} | |||
Latest revision as of 18:15, 24 April 2010
Mercury fulminate, Hg(ONC)2, is an explosive that is highly sensitive to shock, and used to initiate processes leading to the detonation of a high explosive or a explosive-based propellant. While it is powerful and relatively easy to prepare, it has been replaced, in manufactured ammunition and explosives, principally by lead azide preparations, which have better storage properties and are not quite as shock-sensitive.
It was first synthesized in 1800 and patented as a primer in 1807, and designed into a blasting cap by Alfred Nobel in 1867. [1]
Chemistry
It is a salt of fulminic or paracyanic acid, which polymerizes very rapidly in both aqueous and ethereal solutions, and so cannot be isolated. The crystal structure of the salt was finally characterized in 2007. [2] The structure of fulminic acid, and thus the salts of this acid, is undetermined. Anhydrous mercury fulminate has a molecular weight of 284.65, or, as the hydrate, 293.64.[3]
To produce it, widely available chemicals are the principal feedstocks: elemental mercury, nitric acid and ethanol. Even industrial synthesis is on a relatively small batch scale, and guerrillas have produced it in primitive conditions, although with occasional catastrophic accidents.
References
- ↑ Military Explosives, U.S. Department of the Army, September 1984, TM 9-1300-214, pp. 2-4 to 2-6}}
- ↑ Elizabeth K. Wilson (19 August 2007), "Mercury Fulminate Revealed: Researchers finally determine X-ray structure of infamous explosive", Chemical and Engineering News
- ↑ Military Explosives, pp. 7-5 to 7-8