Hydrogen Peroxide?

vyv_cox said:
We used to use sodium chlorate weedkiller and sugar. The IRA used to use sodium chlorate and diesel, apparently. Sodium chlorate has been fixed to nullify its explosive qualities but the other two are unlikely to be banned.
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ANFO (Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil) was first developed for use in mining in South Africa, I believe. Of course, it is a very cheap and efficient explosive - Ammonium Nitrate alone is pretty potent, but hard to detonate. Chlorate based recipes were the main-stay of explosives experiments in my youth, but these mixtures are incredibly unstable - Potassium Chlorate "crackles" if ground in a mortar, so explosives containing it may be detonated by a sharp enough blow.
 
When I was a boy I very nearly permanently removed my ability to hear with a hydrogen peroxide concoction. What amazed me at the time was the fact that the requisite chemicals were on the same shelf as each other at the shop.
 
Joker said:
Certainly not phosgene. You must be thinking of something else.

And ditto with the smell.
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I am pretty sure one of the old refrigerants did decompose into Phosgene and something else at high temperatures which was one of the reasons we monitored the levels in nuclear submarines as we still smoked in those days
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Anyone with moderate chemical knowledge (probably not even to A-level standard) knows enough to make a bomb from readily available materials.
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There is a chap with a Youtube channel dedicated to demonstrations of making explosives with materials and equipment available from airport departure lounge shops.

AntarcticPilot said:
ANFO (Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil) was first developed for use in mining in South Africa, I believe. Of course, it is a very cheap and efficient explosive - Ammonium Nitrate alone is pretty potent, but hard to detonate.
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"The Black Gold of Malaverde" is an entertaining if trashy thriller, sub-Bagley, involving a very large amount of ammonium nitrate going bang
 
" trace vapour drawn through a glowing cigarette end, can be converted to phosgene"

Phosgene is COCl2. Hydrogen peroxide H2O2. So where do we get the chlorine from - the tobacco?
 
Got a big billicking at school for adding ammonium hydroxide to Iodine crystals. The resulting Nitrogen Tri-iodide crystals make great sounds when stood on by unsuspecting chemistry teachers! He wasn't happy with us anyway since the school had to be evacuated the previous week when we 'accidentally' made Phosgene by holding a bunsen flame over some evaporating chloroform.
Those were the days!
 
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Joker said:
" trace vapour drawn through a glowing cigarette end, can be converted to phosgene"

Phosgene is COCl2. Hydrogen peroxide H2O2. So where do we get the chlorine from - the tobacco?
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They were discussing dichloromethane, and though I am not a chemist I think there is probably a clue in the "chloro".
 
Just stolen this from The Other Place.

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Seemed appropriate! :)

Richard
 
ianj99 said:
He wasn't happy with us anyway since the school had to be evacuated the previous week when we 'accidentally' made Phosgene by holding a bunsen flame over some evaporating chloroform.
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I used to work in a lab where we used a lot of Genklene solvent, which I gather is 1,1,1-trichloroethane. Ome day I set fire to some paper towels soaked in the stuff - the resulting fumes were extremely unpleasant, and I have since discovered that although the stuff doesn't readily burn, flames decompose it to hydrogen chloride and a little phosgene.
 
vyv_cox said:
We used to use sodium chlorate weedkiller and sugar. The IRA used to use sodium chlorate and diesel, apparently. Sodium chlorate has been fixed to nullify its explosive qualities but the other two are unlikely to be banned.
Click to expand...

The IRA used ammonium nitrate and diesel/ petrol ( = Amatol, a military low explosive from the 1940s). Low power, but with big quantities of ammonium nitrate available from the farming industry inn NI,, in 1 m3 bags, quite potent and as a big bomb, devastating.

The sodium chlorate available to the public is now about 50%, the rest made up of sodium chloride I expect. Very much less effectual as a weedkiller.

An amusing story in a strange sort of way; we left the UK in 1992 and the removals company refused to take any garden chemicals to Holland. So, we left them with my wife's parents. My wife's dad was not the best DIY guy. He assumed the 100% sodium chlorate was a fertiliser and sprayed his pristine front lawn with a solution of it. It soon looked like the Gobi desert! However, on the positive side it did precipitate a move to get the ex front lawn covered with stone and gravel; maintenance free !
 
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JumbleDuck said:
I used to work in a lab where we used a lot of Genklene solvent, which I gather is 1,1,1-trichloroethane. Ome day I set fire to some paper towels soaked in the stuff - the resulting fumes were extremely unpleasant, and I have since discovered that although the stuff doesn't readily burn, flames decompose it to hydrogen chloride and a little phosgene.
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111 trichloroethane was one of the constituents in the adhesive I used years ago sticking foam backed vinyl. Very nasty side effects.
 
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