I was reading here that it makes a very impressive AN based explosive. But until today, I'd never seen any. I went to a car place, and there was a thinner there that said 'contains xylene'. How much do you think, and how easy could it be purified. A search was done, but all info was more to do with xylene's use and not it's aquisition and purification.

Cheers.

If you are looking for Xylene, your best bet is either those Auto-Supply stores or the Hardware Store. In either case, it should be sold as a solvent- whether it be for paint, grease, or whatever. You may have better luck finding it in the Hardware Store (I think I remember seeing it at ACE), because in the auto stores it tends to have a lot of impurities.

There is no way I can tell you how much it contains but as a paint thinner, it may very well be the main solvent. Try a MSDS search. As far as purification, it depends what else is in there (if anything) but distillation is a possibility.

Unfortunately, solvents tend to be vaguely labelled in this country. Most products have a phone number for enquiries either for the manufacturer or importer though. You could give them a call and ask for the full contents of the product, you can say you're doing a risk assesment at work.

If you can find an MSDS on the web for the product that'd be easier, but product MSDS don't seem to be as popular here as in the US.

Ive seen it in hardware stores (in cement/plaster section?), and in ag stores.


http://ww1.altlist.com/~52497/rogue.altlist.com/images/xylene.jpg

Thanks all. Sounds like a bit of a chew on, but would you say that AN and Xylene is worth while. Alen said once (I think) that he used 160g of it to blow a big tree in half, and that sounds, to me, as if it is very good. Anyone have any experience with this and knows the right ratios, sensetivity, etc?

Xylene is one of the more "energy rich" hydrocarbons. High octane fuels contain more xylene because it's octane level varies from 110 to 140 in pure form.

Ratios should be calculated by writing the detonation equation and applying stoichiometry.

Anyone know what isomers it is most likely to contain? o-, m- or p- dimethylbenzene? Ethylbenzene? I've seen them all called xylene.

The isomer composition of xylene depends on what it is distilled from, for example petroleum vs. coal tar. The isomers are predominately meta-xylene in the range of 45-70%. Typical for petroleum derived xylene is 44% meta, 20% ortho, 20% para, and 15% ethylenebenzene. For coal tar derived the ranges are 45-70% meta, 23% para, 10-15% ortho, and 6-10% ethylbenzene. The kind you get in the store is also likely to be contaminated with toluene, trimethylbenzene, phenol, pyridine, and other misc hydrocarbons all in trace amounts. As far as I know it is damn nigh impossible to seperate the individual isomers without chemicially converting them in some way. One should also note that ethylbenzene is a standard component of all commercial xylene.

Thanks all. Sounds like a bit of a chew on, but would you say that AN and Xylene is worth while. Alen said once (I think) that he used 160g of it to blow a big tree in half, and that sounds, to me, as if it is very good

I'd say it's as worth while as any other ANFO explosive.

And i used 85/15/5 CN/NG/Xylene to blow down a tree, not AN/Xyelene.

How big was the tree? You said you just taped it to the side? I find trees very stubbon customers unless you bore a charge inside them.

Xylene is availible in some painting/hardware stores in sweden costs about 8-9 US dollars a litre.
A am definately trying AN/Xylene as soon as I get to the place that sells it around here.

Sherwin-Williams Paint stores have (at least in my area)

Xylene
Toluene
Muriatic Acid
Naptha

all for sale by the jug

[EDIT: remembered naptha.

I didn't see it mentioned so another possible sources of Xylene are pool stores (i'm not sure what they use it for) but i've seen ~0.5l bottles of xylene there; and Bug Remover for cars and such.
From some of the patents I see that nitromethane is often used with Xylene in AN compositions, anyone knows why? as far as I know nitro has some kick ass expansion and sensitizing qualities, so why bother with xylene which is not even cheaper.

Desmikes: below is a table I have ripped from Wantsomfets hompage some time ago. There you can see in which proportions ANNMX is used. The best additive is said to be methanol but xylene also seemes to be quite good.

ANNM
Look in the files section for US patents dealing with ammonium nitrate explosives. You can get even more info by looking up the patents that are refered in the patents i converted to PDF.


I extracted the info from U.S. Patent 4,093,478 ("Activated Ammonium Nitrate Explosive", Gerald L. Hurst)
Amount of AN used in each test: 1000g

Ratios for the best mix are: Ammonium nitrate 1000g, Nitromethane 185g (162ml), Methanol 84g (106ml)

Ammonium nitrate preparation
A : commercial grade AN prills "Nitro-Carbo-Nitrate" from Trojan-U.S. Powder, NY

B : 1000g of the above mentioned prills having an initial moisture content of 0,1% are thoroughly wetted with 5g water (0,5% by weight). The wetted prills are placed in an oven and heated to 80 °C for about 30 minutes until moisture content is less than 0,2%. The density after cooling to room temperature is about 0,73 g/ccm instead of 0,89 g/ccm. The oil retention after the treating is 20% instead of 10%.

C : The same procedure as B except that 50g water (5% by weight) is used to wet the AN prills and the oven is set to 60 °C instead of 80 °C. Density after this treatment is 0,59 g/ccm and oil retention of the now activated ammonium nitrate is about 30%.

D : The same procedure as B except that 10g water (1% by weight) is used to wet the AN prills and the oven is set to 100 °C instead of 80 °C. Density after this treatment is 0,68 g/ccm and oil retention of the now activated ammonium nitrate is about 25%.

E : The same procedure as B except that 20g water (2% by weight) is used to wet the AN prills. Density after this treatment is 0,62 g/ccm and oil retention of the now activated ammonium nitrate is about 27%.

F : 1000g of AN prills are placed in an oven in a glass beaker at 45 °C for 24 hours to assure the transition in the crystalline phase above 32 °C. After 24 hours 10g of 74° C water is added and mixed with stirring. The AN is immediately returned to the oven and dried at 80 °C for one hour. Density 0,78 g/ccm.


Test No. AN prep. AN density g/ccm Cap# Nitromethane 2nd additive result
01 A 0,89 6 185g 40g xylene failed to detonate

02 B 0,73 6 185g 40g xylene shatters 2 cubic yards limestone boulder into particles having a mean diameter of less than 5 inches. Loud report & substantial brisance.

03 C 0,59 6 - 25g xylene shatters 1 cubic yard limestone boulder into particles having a mean diameter of about than 10 inches. Loud report.

04 C 0,59 6 150g 10g toluene shatters 2 cubic yards limestone boulder into particles having a mean diameter of less than 10 inches. Loud report & substantial brisance.

05 C 0,59 6 - 150g nitropropane see 04

06 B 0,73 6 185g 40g benzene see 02

07 B 0,73 6 185g 40g toluene see 02

08 D 0,68 6 185g 40g xylene shatters 2 cubic yards limestone boulder into particles having a mean diameter of less than 6 inches. Loud report & substantial brisance.

09 E 0,62 6 130g 40g xylene shatters 2 cubic yards limestone boulder into particles having a mean diameter of less than 6 inches. Loud report.

10 B 0,73 6 185g 40g methanol see 02

11 B 0,73 6 185g 84g methanol The shattering results on a 2 cubic yard boulder are inferior to those obtained with 40 grams of xylene (same oxygen balance as 84g methanol). For applications requiring maximum energy release and brisance, the alcohol is inferior to xylene.
12 B 0,73 6 185g 60,7g ethanol only partial detonation

13 B 0,73 6 185g 52,8g propyl alcohol no detonation

14 E 0,62 6 130g 40g xylene produces large dent in half inch steel plate. Mixture has substantial brisance.

15 F 0,78 6 185g 40g xylene The mix is detonated while still above 32 °C. An excellent result is obtained. A 2/3 cubic yard boulder is shattered into pieces having a mean diameter of less than 4 inches.

16 E 0,62 6 130g 53g butyl acetate shatters 1 cubic yards limestone boulder into particles having a mean diameter of less than 6 inches. Substantial brisance.

17 E 0,62 6 152g
dinitrotoluene oil 10g aromatic naphta

SC150 shatters 1 cubic yards limestone boulder into particles having a mean diameter of less than 6 inches. Substantial brisance.

Oh, what sweet luck!
We are having renovations done at this place, the workmen seem to be storing a one-galllon can of 100% Xylene in my shed. Pity if they were to misplace it!
So anyway, the moral of this story is that Wall Rendering Supplies seem to be a source of high purity Xylene, if you happend to come across them.
Oh, and excuse my stupidity, but what do the letters (A-F) before the description of each test in the patent described by DBSP refer to?

edit: thanks, tri-x

Metafractal, A-F refers to the AN prep method mentioned at the top of the post. the next item is the prill density produced by that prep method.