Comparative Study of The Physical Properties of TNT (2,4,6-trinitrotoluene) in Molding Process

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to study physical properties of TNT (2,4,6-trinitrotoluene) in molding process by qualitative and quantitative analysis. It is found in this study that the broken TNT sticks from molding process have the range of the melting point between 80.0 and 82.0 oC which is wider than several samples. The analysis by means of Thin-Layer Chromatography (TLC), High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy (NMR) suggested that the chemical conversion of the broken TNT sticks from molding and TNT powder obtained from the drill core did not convert into TNT isomers. Moreover, the broken TNT sticks were purified by dissolving with acetone and then filtered. The amount of pure TNT retrieved from the broken TNT sticks from molding process was 95.91% by volume and the remaining 4.09% was black powder. However, this experiment demonstrated that the broken of TNT sticks obtained from molding process was not due to the degradation of TNT bar, which was packed by the use of high pressure, but mainly from contamination of the graphite in factory process, which must be used in the coating before molding process.