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properties of mercury fulminate
- under microscope it is in the shape of octagon crystals
- its density is 4.42 g/cm3
- it has numerous colors , white, brown and grey , the best being grey
- it is sensitive to heat , fire and electric current. blasting temperature is 170 celcius degree
- its speed of blast is 4500 m/s
- it is not affected by light
- it is affected by humidity, if there is 15% humidity it will catch fire, but will not blast . if there is 30% humidity it will not fire or blast.
8.it does not dissolve in cold water , but it dissolves in the following items.
a. in boiling water . 8 gr of mercury fulminate dissolves in 100 ml water
b. dissolves in ammonium hydroxide mixture have the temperature 20 celcius to 30 celcius degree. but if temperature of mixture increases to 60 celcius the process will be irreversible and the mercury fulminate will not be recovered.
c. dissolves in mixture of aceton and ammonia , and if you add water to this , mercury fulminate is recovered and is pure and stronger than before.
d. dissolves in mixture of ethyl alcohol and ammonia - the minimum temperature for it to blast is 180 celcius degree so it falls between lead azide and acetone peroxide . so it is selected for use in normal detonators, capsules of bullets and other impact detonators of bullets and missiles . in 19th century it was one of the famous primary charge in military
- it is poisonous just like all salts of mercury
- its reactions with metals . it reacts with wet copper to form copper fulminate which has a very weak explossive power. but it does not react with dry copper. rather it can be stored in it . it reacts with aluminium metal and forms a non explosive material
- to denature it : put it in concentrated sodium hydroxide or in aniline it would dissolve and finish off
- if it is in large amounts, store in water which will also depress its harmful vapors
preparation of mercury fulminate
- take mercury using dropper and weight till you get 1 gram
- put this 1 gram of mercury into a beaker 1 containing 10ml - 60 to 70% cencentrated nitric acid and allow reacting until mercury dissolves.
- now brown colored gases will emit (having no smell , but do not in hale it ) allow all gases to finish emitting .
- allow reactions to continue untill color of solution becomes brown and the mercury dissolves entirely .
- pour 10 ml of ethyl alcohol into an empty beaker 2
- then pour beaker 1 into beaker 2 . the mercury fulminate will go grey and white gases will also be emitted which alcohol. if reaction gets out of control the pour a little amount of methyl alcohol to settel down the reaction
- allow these gases to come out and allow reaction to continue until beaker cools down and mercury fulminate settles down which can be of grayish color or brown or white
- now filter this and wash crystal powder with a solution containing 5 part water and 1 part ethyl alcohol . it is better if solution is poured to beaker before filtering
- collect crystals and allow drying in sunlight
- once dry you can use in detonators with lead azide or store in bottle of water at the ratio = 3 part water : 1 part mercury fulminate .
diagram for preparing mercury fulminate
uses of mercury fulminate
it is used in impact dotonators , normal detonators , capsules of bullets and missiles . it is advises to use other primary charges if available instead of mercury fulminate , due to its weakness.