🚀 go-pugleaf

>Hmmm....   (Sorry, had to delurk on this one...)  I've made *many* batches of
>acetone peroxide (in plastic 2-liter bottles in the freezer - great yield)
>from 30% Clairoxide hair bleach, and it works ***GREAT***!  I know that this
>stuff is supposed to be unstable, but I have never had a problem with it.  I
>would nominate it as best *easy* explosive - cheap, simple, and powerful.  
>Plus, a large pile of it can be detonated with a cigarette in the palm of your
>hand, causing a huge **WHUMPP!!!** and a big fireball.  Cool stuff!

>	-rAT


After reading this thread and seeing this post, I can keep silent no longer.
Acetone Peroxide (commonly called Peroxyacetone) is ***extremely*** unstable.
According to the Handbook of Chemical Demonstrations (the author's name eludes
me for now - it's designed to provide chemistry instructors with exciting
chemical demonstrations), Peroxyacetone is nearly as sensitive as NI3.  It
can be set off with flame or an electric charge.  It is also highly shock 
sensitive.  I have set small (~ .25 g) batches off with flames (candles on
yardsticks) and the results are quite impressive.  
  It is very simple to make, except that the reaction is extremely slow 
unless it's catalyzed.  The problem with catalyzation is that not only is the
synthesis catalyzed, but the decomposition is too.  The pure stuff is not just
terribly foul, but if there is *any* impurity, it can detonate (!) without
any warning.  

  (this seems like ample background to get to my point)

  Back in my wilder days in high school, I worked with this stuff extensively.
I had devised a wonderful "fountain" with a paper tube, some cotton and some
peroxyacetone.  I will not get into the details, because I have seen what
happens when these go wrong.  The one I was working with had about .1 g
of peroxyacetone in it.  I was getting it prepared to fire.  I set it in the
(shatterproof) fume hood in my lab and turned around to get my igniter to set
the fountain off, when it exploded behind me (at about 3 feet range).  
  In a nutshell, with .1 gram of the stuff, I was deafened for about 2 hours
and had it been in my hand, I would not have a hand today.  I still have not
determined what caused the explosion, but there was nothing left of my fountain
(or the clamp that held it) to start from.     
  My chemistry teacher and I concluded that it spontaneously decomposed (as
it tends to do occasionally). 

  Ever since this incident, I have not touched the stuff, and will not again
(even in such small quantities).  Peroxyacetone is as unstable as all
the literature says it is.  Be careful with it.


Cheers
Tommy Boatman
Texas Tech University
Academic Compuing Services