I appologise for posting a new topic while I'm still "new" but, after raking around google and the archives I can't seem to find much.

There has been the occassional mention in posts of substituting AN for other nitrates when making AN/hydrocarbon explosives(specifically NM).

So has anyone got any information they can offer such as:

* which nitrates, and why? (fire some chemistry at me - im interested:)Anthony mentioned that he managed to detonate Potassium Nitrate/NM and i was wondering if Calcium Nitrate could be used as well? I'm aware it's used in some explosives WITH AN and is on the ATF list of potentially explosive materials.

* any data on sensitivity, power, brisiance or just general comparison to regular AN/NM?

* What makes AN so special (popular) compared to other metal nitrates? Is it because the NH4 liberates more gasses than other nitrates?

Curious ...

Thanks in advance for your time.
HVD

A good serious post from a serious new member.
Calcium nitrate sensitize AN and potassium nitrate.
Do a search for "calcium nitrate" AND "detonate" at <a href="http://www.uspto.gov/patft/" target="_blank">http://www.uspto.gov/patft/</a> and you should find some more information.

all ammonium compounds with a oxidizing anion (NO3, ClO, CLO2, Cr2O7 et c) are unstable and will decompose exothermically. They have to be treated like potential explosives during handling and storage. Some like NH4CLO3 are extremely unstable and cant be handled at all.

Some have a oxygen surplus, f e w NH4NO3 (NH4NO3 => N2 + 2H2o + 1/2 O2 + 80kJ) and this oxygen serves as oxidant for the fuel. (diesel usually)

NH4NO3 is very cheap to manufacture and so is Ca(No3)2, which decompose endothermically (has to be heated to 500 C before decomposition) . Price nd the exothermical decomposition has lead to a wide spread use for NH4NO3 as an explosive.

/rickard