How is tnt formed

The oxygen content of the nitro compunds also makes the molecules self-oxidising, and the very short distance between the oxygens and the carbon and hydrogen atoms they are combining with contributes to the speed of the reaction. As well as being destructive, TNT is also very toxic.

In the United States alone, over 17, cases of TNT poisoning were reported during the first world war, causing around deaths of munitions workers due to liver damage and anaemia. By the second world war, safety procedures were tightened up. Cleaning up TNT-contaminated soil around factories or places where TNT has been used has become an important environmental issue and scientists are studying plant systems that can sequester and detoxify TNT.

Chemists have of course tried to improve on TNT, and sometimes with unexpected results. Although it was no use as an explosive, it had a wonderful musky smell and became the forerunner of nitromusks that were the cornerstone of the perfume industry for the next half century.

Today, over a hundred years after TNT was first employed as a military explosive, it is still widely used, notably as an explosive in landmines. Detecting TNT-filled landmines requires skill on the part of sniffer dogs and their handlers. It has only recently been realised that dogs trained to detect TNT landmines are actually responding to traces of an impurity. That impurity is 2,4-dinitrotoluene, or DNT. Although it is only present at a level below 0.

People are still trying to make landmine detectors using electronics or chemical systems, but at the present time it is still a job for man's best friend. Certainly a risky job to have. Now, next week: we venture into the lab and move from explosives to acids. Most of us first come across the trio of strong acids - hydrochloric, nitric and sulphuric - when we venture into a chemistry lab at school.

They aren't the kind of substances you find in the kitchen cupboard at home. Yet I can guarantee that one of these compounds has been part of your life every day since you were a baby. Because hydrochloric acid plays an essential role in your body. Your stomach contains a sizeable quantity of hydrochloric acid and can have a pH as low as 1. And to find out more about the role hydrochloric acid plays in our stomachs, as well as its uses out in industry, join Brian Clegg in next week's Chemistry in it's element.

Until then, thank you for listening. I'm Meera Senthilingam. A DNA researcher tells the story of how humans have shaped the evolution of living things on Earth. Site powered by Webvision Cloud. Skip to main content Skip to navigation.

Related audio. Book club — Deep Sniff by Adam Zmith. Book club — Lessons from Plants by Beronda Montgomery. Simon Cotton takes us through the history of an explosive compound. Meera Senthilingam This week, the many uses of an explosive comound. Explaining more, here's Simon Cotton: Simon Cotton When a compound is best known by an acronym, that usually means bad news.

Topics Chemistry in its Element: Compounds Podcasts. Latest audio. Book club — Vampirology by Kathryn Harkup. Load more audio. The dangers of TNT are well documented. Due to the great expense of TNT it was mixed with ammonium nitrate to make an explosive called Amatol which helped allow the TNT, which was in short supply, go further.

Ammonium nitrate is an oxygen-rich molecule so provides extra oxygen to TNT during combustion ensuring a complete and more exothermic combustion. TNT is not shock sensitive which gave it an advantage over other explosives being used at the time like picric acid. However, the inevitable happened on the 1st July , when the factory exploded injuring and killing people. The blast was so loud it was hear over 20 miles away from the site. Women workers with shells in Chilwell filling factory One side-effect of working with TNT was that the skin of the workers mainly women turned yellow.

This led to more damage than the British shells which detonated on initial impact. Other advantages of TNT is that its relatively low melting point 80oC allowed it to be poured into shells more easily.

In a brilliant British aircraft designer, Sir Barnes Wallis , was working on an experimental bomb to destroy the dams in the heart of the industrial heartland of the then third Reich. The bouncing bomb contained the ubiquitous TNT. Channel 4 UK television station produced a television programme Dambusters: Building the Bouncing Bomb which was first shown on 2nd May One of their iconic songs is TNT which contains these lyrics:.

I'm a power load T. Perhaps the band were using the word 'dynamite' as a slang term for something very dangerous?