Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
stoichiometrically obtained. NO
2
and ammonium are also found in the products.
1 mol ONO
2
groups need 3.4 mol LiAlH
4
. In boiling solution, uronic nitrate is
reduced by the method. However, the reaction goes very slowly, usually to be
finished in 40
50 h with products of pure acetal alcohols.
-
5.1.5 Other Reactions of Nitrate Esters
In the presence of sodium ethoxide or potassium ethoxide, nitrate esters can
be reacted with active methylene compounds to produce isonitro salt compounds
(
(HO)ON=). The esters are hydrolyzed in the condition.
Similar to nitrite esters, alkyl nitrate would react with excessive Grignard reagent
to produce N-dialkyl hydroxylamine.
A remarkable special property of nitrate esters is the ability to catalyze some
additional polymerization reactions [
42
]. In nitroglycerine, both styrene and methyl
methacrylate can be self-polymerized. If the amount of nitroglycerine is up to 5
-
20
portion (weight fraction), equals to 10 % of polymers, the polymerization rate will
be fastened. The molecular weight of polymers is less than that obtained through
slowly polymerization or in situ anionic polymerization.
For the typical polymerization between methyl methacrylate and glycol nitrate
[
43
], their molar ratio is in the range of 0.07
-
5.9. The reaction temperatures are 25,
-
60, 80, and 90
C. Glycol nitrate will be partly decomposed to produce radicals for
initiating polymerization.
°
5.1.6 Chemical Stability of Nitrate Esters
Stability is usually called as chemical stability, which is referred to as either the
stability of a chemical, or the stability of the product which is obtained by stability
treatment of the chemical.
Stability of nitrate esters is a factor to decide if they can be long-term stored [
44
].
Because of their structure, they could be decomposed by hydrolysis and sponta-
neously burned to cause explosion. The higher the purity of esters is, the lower the
risk of decomposition is. The stability depends on the chemical structure of nitrate
esters. For example, the stability for most pure nitrate esters, such as methylene
glycol dinitrate, nitroglycerine, glycol dinitrate, 1,3-propanediol dinitrate, pentae-
rythritol tetranitrate, and cellulose nitrate, is acceptably high.
Thermal decomposition of nitrate esters is very important in application [
44
]. It
is related to long-term storage of weapons and industrial products, and safety and
security in operation in military.
