I was reading the book Organic Chemistry of Explosives, upped by The_Duke, and went straight to the section POLYOLS AND THEIR NITRATE ESTER DERIVATIVES, since ETN/MHN are polyols under recent discussion.

On page 108 is mentioned an explosive derived from nitration of the reaction product of nitromethane and formaldehyde. Very OTC.

The condensation of nitromethane with excess formaldehyde in the presence of potassium hydrogen carbonate yields tris(hydroxymethyl)nitromethane.

Nitration with either absolute nitric acid or mixed acid gives a secondary high explosive.

Following up the citiation:

L.Henry, Compt.Rend,1895, vol. 121, 210

Leads to this, after much Googling and plowing through an unintuitive and poorly designed gallic website:

Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaire des Seances de l'Academie des Sciences (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb343481087/date)

The hour of tedious manual typing and Google translation that followed results in:


The simplest case is that of the reaction of three molecules of formaldehyde to only one of nitromethane.

The two liquids dissolve in one another. The introduction of small fragments of potassium carbonate fragments gives an instantaneous and very sharp reaction; the mass overheated rapidly and, at the end, began boiling. It is wise to cool.

The cooled liquid became more or less thick, remaining colorless.

Dried in vacu over sulphuric acid, it is, after a few days, a crystalline mass.

The yeilds are good. In an operation I had put in action, twice, 20 grams of nitromethane and 75 grams of 40% formaldehyde, I collected 50 grams of product in total.

The reaction of nitromethane, under these conditions, was thus pushed until the end, and one thus passed from the stage it on the floor it, in a jump, at least seemingly. (whatever the hell this means. NBK)

It forms a beautiful solid body, white, crystallizing out of needles or large prisms.

These crystals dissolves easily in water, methanol, ethanol, etc, acetone; it is less soluble in ether. It's taste is fresh, slightly bitter. It melts at 158-159°C in a narrow tube. It is not volatile.

The NE-based material is similiary prepared, using 1:2 ratio, instead of 1:3 with NM:
H.B.BassandB.M.Vanderbilt, Ind.Eng.Chem.,1940, 32,34 (Needed. NBK)

This is the precursor for nitration via US Patent 2195551

According to the patent, the NE-based explosive melts at 40°C, has 134% the power of TNT, with a drop test of a 10kg weight falling 100cm, resulting in no detonation, which would make this a powerful insensitive castable explosive. I'm assuming the NM-based HE has similiar properties.

What's really cool is that the NE-based explosive can be made in 80% yeild using 50% NA and 50% Sulphuric, obviating the need for high-grade acids too. :)

For anyone who can get a copy, the synth for the NM-based explosive is detailed in:

Aubry, M�morial des poudres,1932-33, vol. 25, page197

I would have gotten it online too, if the french had their act together and digitized that series past 1900.

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Seems Mega has an article on the NM-based version here:http://www.roguesci.org/megalomania/explo/NIBGTN.html

Seems the NM derivative is an oil, and the NE a solid.

I made NIBGTN some time ago. It was a slightly orange oil that was quite similar to NG. I used it for making a plastique patterned on the Swiss NG/PETN (or was it RDX?) 20/80 composition. The mechanical properties were OK, but nowhere near as good as plastiques based on well plasticized PIB.

What was more important to me was that the composite was very sensitive to initiation and went high order from just 0.1 PETN.

However, the NIBGTN was not storage stable and after about six months, it was no longer explosive. It could be that it wasn't completely neutral even though I did neutralize it in solution like I usually do.

On the other hand, I remember reading some accounts that mentioned similar instability (but also some that speculated that reports of instability may stemmed from incomplete neutralization).

I've upped the original french citation to my folder on the FTP.

Did you get any nitro headaches from the NIBGTN?

I'm more interested in the NE-based explosive, as it's a solid, but I don't have any NE at present.

The NM-based explosive may be similiar to sorbitol, in that it is a mix of isomers that make it a liquid, but there might be a process for separating them, just like with sorbitol hexanitrate, that results in a solid NM-based explosive.

No I didn't get any headaches. That was one of the interesting points about NiBGTN, I read somewhere that it is less toxic than NG so this made it a good candidate for an energetic binder in plastiques.