Water Gel Explosive - How The Gel Is Made

How The Gel Is Made

The water gel is made by combining nitro paraffin, usually nitromethane (which can be toxic if inhaled), with an aqueous salt solution. Nitro paraffins usually make up most of the water gel explosive. This mixing is done in the presence of a gelling agent. There are different types of gelling agents that are used to create the water gel explosive. One agent is insoluble in water, but able to gel with nitro methane.The gel used for nitro methane is cyanoethylether, a derivative of gallactomannan gum. Other agents are water soluble and are used for the aqueous salt solution. As referenced in the first paragraph, water-soluble gums and gel modifiers like guar can be used for the gelling of aqueous solutions. When the salt solution and nitro paraffin are gelled, the entire mixture is combined and mixed together until the desired consistency is achieved. One characteristic that allows the explosive to work so well is the insoluble nature of the nitro paraffin. The effectiveness of the water gels is dependent on the dissemination of salts in the salt solution. The particles need to be very small and fine so that they can be dispersed well throughout the solution. Some salts that are commonly used include: ammonium nitrate, sodium nitrate, sodium perchlorate and potassium chlorate.The sensitivity of the explosive must be increased in order to improve the initiation of the detonation of the explosive. There are different techniques for increasing the sensitivity. One way to do this is to increasing aluminum or other powdered metals can help increase the sensitivity of the water gel, but increasing the sensitivity also means that the explosives are more combustible. Powdered metals have not proven to be completely effective in increasing the sensitivity of the explosive because they do not uniformly mix through the solution. They also become lose sensitivity as storage time increases. Liquid non- self-explosive sensitizers like nitrobenzene and liquid nitroluene have not worked as well either because they are difficult to hold in suspension. Liquid aliphatic mononitrates have been found to work very effectively as sensitizers when they are well mixed in the water gel.