Talk:Explosive material

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The categories given appear to overlap and be redundant: eg. High/low explosives and primary/secondary explosives. Can anyone clarify this?

Clarified. Primary/secondary is correctly a classification by sensitivity, high/low is not, but rather by mode of explosion. -- Roger 00:00 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Naphthalene?

Is naphthalene a chemical explosive? It differs from website to website. Could an expert confirm or correct this? Or can it be explosive with additives? On brainiac episode 1 series 4, it states that naphthalene is "a very volitile material". It created a very powerful explosion. However, I cant seem to find naphthalene classed as an explosive on any websites. This video suggests it is explosive http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1Otb7PlGpY however, very little information is given on what is actually happening and what is used. Any help would be appriciated.

I have copied in a large chuk of relevant text from a U.S. navy public domain resource document, namely

  • Fundamentals of Naval Weapons Systems, Chapter 12, by the Weapons and Systems Engineering Deptartment of the United States Naval Academy

It needs extensive editing and wikification.

[edit] tetryl listed as secondary explosive?

?? AFAIK tetryl is (was) used as a detonator -> primary explosive

[edit] more on tetryl

oops, commented too quickly - tetryl is listed under *both* [correctly] under primary explosives (linked to tetryl entry) and [incorrectly, I think] under secondary explosives

Rmhermen, I removed your addition of picric acid from the primary explosives section, because I don't believe it is correct. You will notice that it was already under the secondary explosives section (but not wikified,, which I have now done). Picric acid was one of the first explosives to be sufficiently insenstive to be used as a filling in armour piercing shells, so it's obviously not all that sensitive!! I am also rather skeptical of tetryl being under primaries; it is used commercially as a booster charge, which makes it a fairly sensitive secondary. It is not used as a detonator, but is often included as a boosting charge in detonators, on top of the actual primary. Securiger 22:56, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Hmmm... "Man sues for $10 million over exploding toilet"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8085008/?GT1=6657:

53-year-old claims he was severely burned in methane blast

The Associated Press Updated: 5:37 p.m. ET June 3, 2005

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - A man who says he was severely burned when a portable toilet exploded after he sat down and lit a cigarette is suing a general contractor and a coal company, accusing them of negligence.

Worthwhile adding here? - Ta bu shi da yu 06:29, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)


The stupid man must have been farting. That releases Methane gas, which, of course, will explode in ur face. If u light a cigarette, then ur asking for an explosion. I can assure u that a toilet, with so much water and so little design, will not explode.

[edit] Include Phlegmatized ?

I've created an article for Phlegmatized but I'm no expert. Does someone want ammend this article to include a link to Phlegmatized and perhaps flesh out the Phlegmatized article.

Megapixie 02:53, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Organization

To me it seems that the reaction information and the military information should be on seperate pages and the first title shouldn't be "chemical explosives" because it is implied by explosive materials; all material explosions are chemical.

[edit] Deletions

I'm former EOD. My comments are dead-on accurate. Reverted.

My dear mugaliens, then I needn't point out that there are scores and scores of different plasticizers used in various explosives, and that the particular phthalate you mentioned is only one of them, and it's so little used that it doesn't even have its own Wikiarticle. Accurate? You listed it under monomolecular explosives. It is not an explosive, it is an additive that is used to modify the physical properties of actual explosives.--BillFlis 23:49, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
"Di-n-butyl phthalate" is an inert, gelatinizing agent used in propellant manufacture to improve physical and processing characteristics, including decreasing the propellant ignitability (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/enviro/RFAAP_IAP.pdf). Meanwhile, "Di-n-octyl phthalate" (also known as DnOP, or C24H38O4), is commonly used in HE today because numerous studies have shown that phthalates are "highly biodegradable under both aerobic and anerobic conditions" (http://www.umwelt-schweiz.ch/imperia/md/content/abfall/s_m1.pdf). Both are in the family of Nonhalogenated Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds/Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons. DoPN is a key ingredient in both SEMTEX A and H (http://gamekeeper.deds.nl/semtex.html). Yes, it's a plasticizer. I'm sorry I didn't make that clear. However, I never said DnOP was the explosive. I said it was "an ingredient used in high explosives," aka, a "plasticizer." Thus, I created a Plasticizer section below and added DoNP, complete with references in the references section. Please feel free to add additional plasticizers your invaluable experience consideres worthwhile. Mugaliens 17:14, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Liquid explosives

Could someone create a separate section on Liquid explosives, particularly the differences in chemical properties from typical solid explosives or the engineering difficulties in creating them? It seems very relevant all of a sudden. --M@rēino 21:43, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Sure. What have you got to contribute? I'm sure it would be fine, as long as you have your usual array of references.--BillFlis 00:26, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
Me? Very little. Chemistry's not my field. But I will copyedit any submissions. :) --M@rēino 18:15, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
I got an 800 in chemistry, but I'm not going to teach you how to make a bomb. How do I know you're not some dumb kid who would blow his house up?--BillFlis 01:05, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
  • You have absolutely know way of knowing that -- but I'm not asking for that. Such information is unencyclopedic: you shouldn't be posting how to build a bomb -- or any sort of how-to -- on Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not howstuffworks.com. But this article could use good information explaining why liquid explosives are different from solid explosives, and what the preferred application for each would be. --M@rēino 02:23, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Info about liquid explosives on BBC-News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4780391.stm (though some of the statements in this article appear terribly uninformed.) 80.137.72.126 04:54, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Composition of the material

I'm having difficulty understanding why this is broken into two sections, "Mixtures of an oxidizer and a fuel" and "Chemically pure compounds." By definition, an explosive is a mixture of a fuel and an oxidizer. Whether that oxidizer is actually Oxygen or not is immaterial, as many elements and chemical compounds act as oxidizers. For example, hydrogen gas is not considered an explosive by itself. A mixture of hydrogen gas and oxygen, however, is considered an explosive. Why the distinction? The better definition is "any substance which can be detonated and in which the burn rate through the substance exceeds the speed of sound through the substance." Mugaliens 13:59, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't know where you found that definition of an explosive, but the materials listed under chemically pure (monomolecular) compounds can each detonate without any air or other oxidizer. In the process, the atoms of the original molecule rearrange themselves into new compounds (generally gases), with a release of a substantial amount of energy. The hot gases want to occupy a much larger volume than the original solid or liquid, thus the explosion. In practice, such explosives are seldom used in a pure state (mainly for safety reasons), but the other chemicals that are introduced (such as binders and plasticizers) generally do not contribute much (if at all) to the chemistry of the explosion.BillFlis 16:07, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What about the HISTORY of explosives?

how long has explosive material been around; for what reasons ext.

[edit] Balancing chemical explosion equations - Error??

Think the calculation for TNT may contain an error here, the rules set out in the table conform to the KISTIAKOWSKY – WILSON RULES however these are only relevant for those molecules with an oxygen balance of greater than -40%, the modified K-W rules (for those of less than -40% oxygen balance) have hydrogen becoming oxidised first, followed by CO and then CO2 if enough. I think the correct formula should be 3.5 CO + 3.5 C + 2.5 H2O + 1.5 N2. Paulerob 10:41, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] History

I would have to agree. There really actually needs to be an article dvoted to the hisoty of explosives. If that can't happen, there needs to be a subheading in this existing article on the history.

Also, is this meant respectively, or non-respectively? I'm not sure.

"When wood or coal is burned in the atmosphere, the carbon and hydrogen in the fuel combine with the oxygen in the atmosphere to form carbon dioxide and steam (water), together with flame and smoke." —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 124.176.249.36 (talk) 05:54:19, August 19, 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Explode with oxygen?

im not sure where i heard this, but arent there compounds that explode upon contact with normal air? or am i thinking ignite?Ω: Rendered Null and Void 20:43, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

you mean Pyrophoricity. It does not have to be (pure) oxygen.Pyrotec 21:00, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
umm according to the page, its not that it reacts with standard air. by standard i mean what you are breathing right now. unless ur in a lab or a clean room or something. im thinking of airtight chamber, open the seal, maybe wait a few seconds, then BOOM! also, if possible, wether or not it can by freely made by combining 2 or more stable chemicals. purpose is ejection from stopped high-speed cartridge, think gun barrel, to react in midair, then detonate upon reaction completion.Ω: Rendered Null and Void 22:25, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] N2+O2

this reaction obviously doesn't work anywhere near ambient temperature, so if anyone can find a more realistic example it would be nice :) --Sgt. Salt (talk) 11:45, 5 January 2008 (UTC)