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Science and Technology of Energetic Materials

Vol.64, No.4 (2003)

Research paper

The synthesis of zinc picrates
Makoto Matsukawa, Takehiro Matsunaga, Ken-ichi Miyamoto, Mitsuaki Iida,
Masatake Yoshida, Hiroki Morinaga, and Shuzo Fujiwara
p.145-152

Abstract

Picric acid is known to react with metals to form highly unstable metallic picrates, which are known to have been involved in serious explosive accidents. In this study, zinc picrates are synthesized from zinc powder, zinc carbonate and zinc sulfate, and the thermodynamic and explosive properties of the different compounds are examined. Differential scanning calorimetry results reveal that decomposition of zinc picrate begins at a lower temperature than picric acid. The heat of decomposition of zinc picrate was lower than that of picric acid. Zinc picrate was confirmed by thermal gravimetric analysis and Karl Fischer analysis to contain crystalline H2O, and to dehydrate stepwise with increasing temperature. Experimental results show that the zinc picrate molecules contain approximately six molecules of crystalline H2O. Crystalline H2O dehydration occurred between 330 and 500 K. Zinc picrate was dehydrated by heating in a vacuum, with dehydrated zinc picrate confirmed to exhibit re-hydration properties. Activation energy of exothermic decomposition was determined to be 116.0 - 133.4 kJmol-1 and was similar for all samples. The zinc picrate synthesized in this study had similar chemical properties independent of the synthesis method.

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