gelatins

[max.yevs]

went to walmart today...(which is a store, for all you non-americans)...

 

found a bottle of 99.5% anhydrous glycerin

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10417582

 

would simply reacting it with nitric acid yield nitroglycerin?

 

it seems like each OH group is replaced by an NO3 group... and the rest is C3H5... for any other acid, i would say C3H5 is not more reactive then hydrogen, it could not steal its NO3.

 

but nitric acid operates on a whole different level than other acids. often it is more than willing to nitrate something less reactive then hydrogen, i.e. copper. but that's a whole different story.

 

not that i'm very interested in explosives, especially such unstable ones.

[Kaeroll]

I believe the synthesis of nitroglycerin requires fuming nitric and sulphuric acids, and comes with an enormous "do not try at home" sticker.

[max.yevs]

care to explain why sulfuric acid is required?

i know its required but i cant understand why.... if say some oxidizer like persulfate was required, i would understand...

Allyl(OH)3 + 3HNO3 + 2Na2S2O8 = Allyl(NO3)3 + H2O + 2H2SO4 + 2Na2SO4 + O2

 

then again, i guess sulfuric acid in itself is an oxidizer...

 

and yeah, i'm obviously not planning on making this... if the instability isn't enough, authorities might mark you as a terrorist

 

but it would be nice if i knew how to make such a well known explosive

[Kaeroll]

I imagine its role is as catalyst. By analogy, in the nitration of benzene - which also proceeds using nitric/sulphuric acids - the sulphuric acid acts as an acid upon the nitric acid. It protonates the OH group on the nitric acid (the group that usually acts as an acid itself!), allowing it to leave as water, forming the nitronium ion [math]NO^{+}_{2}[/math].

 

In this reaction I imagine something similar happens. As the sulphuric acid is so concentrated as to be the solvent, you could expect a great deal of nitronium ion to be formed. It is possible that the sulphuric acid also acts as a dehydrating agent and is involved in attack on the glycerol but I honestly couldn't say.

[Theophrastus]

Theoretically speaking, reacting nitric acid, with glycerine (a common by product of the soap- making industry (thank you fight club!)) will in fact yield nitroglycerine, however, I hope you only ask this in a conversational manner, because, I don't feel I even need to mention the volatile nature of this compound. Despite this, following its synthesis, it was widely used in various industry, but at the toll of hundreds of thousands of lives. Its very creator, ascanio sobrero, warned of this. It was only years later that alfred nobel, found a way to stabilize it, yielding the more stable, however equally deadly, dynamite.

 

"(Which is a store for all you non- Americans)"???

Don't worry, I'm sad to say that Wal- mart is a global, not a national evil, that has yet managed to permeate, numerous nations. Alas...