Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4
Liquid Nitro Explosives
4.1 Introduction
Liquid nitro explosives are mainly liquid nitro-containing aliphatics, aromatics and
alcohols. Among these compounds, nitro alkane is a very important liquid explo-
sive, which has a certain explosive power. Thus, nitro alkane is an important
energy-containing component to produce liquid nitro explosive mixtures and also
an important raw material for other nitro derivatives. Additionally, liquid nitro
compounds also have applications very widely in the solvent and chemical
industries.
Hydrogen atoms on
-carbon of primary and secondary nitroalkane are very
active to have many chemical reactions, whereby many derivatives can be pro-
duced. Because t-nitroalkane molecule does not have any
α
α
-hydrogen atom, some
reactions could not take place [
1
]. Because
α
-hydrogen atoms in 1,1-dinitroalkane
and trinitromethane are in
uenced by several nitro groups, their chemical properties
are more active than those in mononitroalkane. Nitro alcohols are derivatives of
nitro alkanes, which are important liquid explosives and the key intermediates of
many nitro explosives and propellants; mono nitro aromatic compounds and a few
dinitro compounds are liquid; because the electron withdrawing effect of
fl
NO
2
decreases the electron density on other positions of the aromatic ring, hydrogen
atoms turn to be particularly active and easy to be substituted. In this chapter, liquid
nitro explosives are nitroalkanes, heteroatom-containing nitroalkanes, nitro alcohols
and nitro or dinitro aromatic compounds; because nitrobenzene and nitrotoluene are
two well-known nitro compounds, they not be discussed in this chapter again.
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