Production
Production is by the reaction of pentaerythritol with concentrated nitric acid to form a precipitate which can be recrystallized from acetone to give processable crystals.
- C(CH2OH)4 + 4 HNO3 → C(CH2ONO2)4 + 4 H2O
Variations of a method first published in a US Patent 2,370,437 by Acken and Vyverberg (1945 to Du Pont) forms the basis of all current commercial production.
PETN is manufactured by numerous manufacturers as a powder about the consistency of fine popcorn salt, or together with nitrocellulose and plasticizer as thin plasticized sheets (e.g. Primasheet 1000 or Detasheet). PETN residues are easily detectable in hair of people handling it. The highest residue retention is on black hair; some residues remain present even after washing.
Read more about this topic: Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labor. By proletariat, the class of modern wage laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live.”
—Friedrich Engels (1820–1895)
“... if the production of any commodity necessitates the sacrifice of human life, society should do without that commodity, but it can not do without that life.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“The production of obscurity in Paris compares to the production of motor cars in Detroit in the great period of American industry.”
—Ernest Gellner (b. 1925)