5 replies to this topic

[spectrum]

Years ago whilst working in the defense industry I had the opportunity of playing with Tetranitrocarbazole (TNC)

TNC delays are recognised as being both accurate and reproducable, the compound simply cannot be sourced today, it disappeared from the BDH catalogue in 1968 understand and when we used it, the trial sample was specially prepared at a cost of £1500.00 for 1 Kg - this was in 1989/90!!

I invite you crazy boffins to shower me with comments!

[Sobrero]

Fedoroff's Encyclopedia of Explosives and Related Items, Volume II, pp C48 - C50, gives quite some info...
I wanted to add these pages to my post, but I didn't see a way of attaching something (only links), how strange.
If you haven't got that book (but apparently you should have ), I could still mail them...

Edited by Sobrero, 23 February 2008 - 08:22 PM.

[Richard H]

If you host the images somewhere, you can link them into your post so they will be displayed.

[spectrum]

Fedoroff's Encyclopedia of Explosives and Related Items, Volume II, pp C48 - C50, gives quite some info...
I wanted to add these pages to my post, but I didn't see a way of attaching something (only links), how strange.
If you haven't got that book (but apparently you should have ), I could still mail them...

I haven't got that book I am afraid - could you post me details? Thanks very much for taking the trouble to help.

[Sobrero]

Here you are:






Tetranitrocarbazole is quite easily made from nitration of carbazole with ~95% nitric acid. Carbazole itself is, IMO, hard to synthesise (Carbazole wiki). But Merck sells 250g of carbazole for 25€, which is pretty convenient.

[GZ22]

You're right about it being hard to find. I know that it's used a lot in the initiation systems for airbags, and is in itself classed as an explosive, which is why it is shipped wetted, akin to the shippping methods for picric acid.