The Effects of Explosives to the World

Introduction

  Explosives are first originated from blackpowder (A mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur and carbon) where it was accidentally discovered by an unknown Chinese alchemist due to some mistakes while preceding his experiment of separating gold from silver.

  Fuses are then invented to ensure the safety of the usage of black powder explosives. They can be detonated by igniting the fuse, which has a time limit to allow the detonator to proceed to safety.

  After black powder, nitroglycerin was discovered by Ascanio Sombrero in 1846. It is a highly explosive liquid which was widely used for explosives manufacturing after Albert Nobel invented the blasting cap and patented dynamite, where a solid mixture is soaked in nitroglycerin to form a cylindrical roll of explosives.

  TNT (Trinitrotoluene) was invented by the Germans, considered as one of the high explosive present in the war. Ballistite and cordite are invented later on, starting the world’s first dense smokeless explosives.

  After years of research and development in technology, modern explosives are created where nitrated fuel or oil and ammonia nitrate are used which proves to be more eco-friendly and effective in the rate of explosion as well as handling.

What are explosives?

  Explosives are exothermic chemicals or components which are sensitive to environment factors such as friction, heat, impact, shock or one or more of the factors that decompose rapidly to generate large volumes of gas and a high velocity shock-wave.

   They cause big disturbances or change in the surrounding area when detonated where the shock waves travels and passes through objects and fill them with cracks. The rapidly expanding gases will fill up the cracks where they expand the cracks until the object disintegrate where it could not withstand the pressure created by the gases.

   The basic mechanism of explosives contains a fuse, a detonator and an explosive base. The detonator is used to stimulate a specific amount of energy (shock/heat) in order to start the reaction while the fuse is used to delay the time of activation in order to allow the detonator to proceed to safety. The explosive base is to react to the detonator and proceed to its exothermic reaction.

  Different ingredients are used to manufacture different kinds of explosives in order to suit the main objective of the explosives, which includes the strength, power, detonation time, range, stability and more. However, in every explosive, there will be a basic structure of classified ingredients which must be included. They can be classified as:

·        Explosive bases - Chemical substances in solid or liquid used to form the exothermic reaction where it releases heat and gases upon detonation

·        Combustibles- Bonds with excessive oxygen during explosion to prevent the forming of nitrous oxides (toxic fumes) and reduce the heat of explosion

·        Oxygen Carriers- Oxidizes with carbon during the explosion to prevent the formation of carbon monoxide and to prevent the lowering of heat in the explosion, decreasing the efficiency of the explosion

·        Antacids- To expand the lifespan of the explosive by decreasing the acidity of the explosives

·         Absorbents- Used in dynamites to prevent the explosive base from escaping or be in contact with the bottom of the container

 Classification of Explosives

  Ingredients of explosives can be classified, same goes to explosives too. Explosives can be classified as two main categories- High explosives and low explosives.

  Low explosives are usually solid combustible materials which tend to burn violently rather than explode due to their low rate of reaction which is known as deflagration where the explosives will generate enough pressure to propel an object in a specific direction. They are classified into the group as their speed of reaction does not exceed the speed of sound. However, under high pressure environments, a reaction similar to detonation will occur. Examples of low explosives are black powder, thermites where they have limited amount of water resistance but highly flammable.  

  High Explosives are usually nitrated organic substances that can be detonated with the speed of reaction travelling faster than supersonic, in other words, the explosive shock front, created by the cracking of rocks and particles in the blast range, travels faster than the speed of sound. Examples of high explosives are TNT, Trinitrotoluene which is a nitrated organic compound and dynamite, with the major presence of nitroglycerin, nitrated glycerin.

Studying Types of Explosives:

TNT (Trinitrotoluene) 

  2, 4, 6 Trinitrotoluene, also known as the chemical formula of C₆H₂ (NO₂)₃CH₃, is a high explosive largely used in the industries because of its insensitivity and stability to its environment, reduces the risk of accidents.

The chemical properties of TNT are:

Taken from (J. Ackhavan. "Classification of Chemical Explosives.”- http://www.e-reading.org.ua/bookreader.php/141462/Akhavan_-_The_chemistry_of_explosives.pdf)

Making TNT:

The toluene is first nitrated with nitric acid and sulphuric acid in order to get the result of mononitrotoluene (MNT) where the results are nitrated again. This process is repeated 2 times where mononitrotoluene will be resulted to trinitrotoluene.

Dynamite

  Dynamite is an unstable compound of nitroglycerine stored with stable organic substances such as sawdust for safety and better handling. Nitroglycerine, also known as 1, 2, 3-trinitroxypropane is an explosive liquid produced by nitrating glycerine. In the modern world, dynamites are discontinued due to the risk produced.

The chemistry properties of dynamite (nitroglycerine) C₃H₅N₃O₉:

Taken from (J. Ackhavan. "Classification of Chemical Explosives.”- http://www.e-reading.org.ua/bookreader.php/141462/Akhavan_-_The_chemistry_of_explosives.pdf)

Making Dynamites:

First, glycerine is nitrated to form nitroglycerin. The dynamite rod made from diatomaceous earths such as sawdust is the soaked in the prepared nitroglycerin. The presence of diatomaceous earth causes nitroglycerin to be more stable, absorbing shock and impacts which might detonate the nitroglycerin by accident.

                                                                                    
                                                                                    

Nitroguanidine

  Nitroguanidine is a triple base smokeless powder, a propelling explosive where it is mostly used in bore guns as it has the ability to decrease the propellant’s flash and heat temperature without affecting the room pressure and a high velocity in detonation.

Chemical properties of Nitroguanidine:

 Taken from (J. Ackhavan. "Classification of Chemical Explosives.”- http://www.e-reading.org.ua/bookreader.php/141462/Akhavan_-_The_chemistry_of_explosives.pdf)

Making Nitroguanidine:

  Guanine is first extracted from the droppings of birds and bats, then later dissolved in highly concentrated sulphumic acidd to form guanidine. The guanidine is then nitrated to form nitroguanidine.

Manufacturing Nitric Acid for Making TNT:

The Haber Process

  The nitrogen molecule is a very stable compound which has a triple covalent bond where it is very hard to be converted into less stable forms such as NH₃  or NH₄. Many tried and failed but German scientist, Haber-Bosch, discovered a way to prepare ammonia gas (NH₃) in a large scale.

  Generally, the haber process involves compressing the nitrogen and hydrogen while distinguishing an environment for a suitable reaction to occur, which leads to the production of ammonia gas.

  First, the nitrogen is obtained from the fractional distillation of liquid air and the hydrogen gas from the reaction of steam and coke. Then, they are compressed in between a 200-500 atmospheric pressure.

·        H₂O+ C→ CO+H₂

  The mixture of the both is then passed through a catalyst of powdered iron at a temperature of 450-550 degree celcius where at this optimum environment, ammonia gas is produced.

·        N­­­­₂+ 3H₂→ 2NH₃

The Ostwald Process

  The Ostwald process invovles converting ammonia gas into nitric acid, which is commonly used for making explosives by nitrating the compounds.

  The main processes in the ostwald process involves mainly on the oxidizing and hydrating of ammonia, where it is closely connected to the Haber process for the mass production of the nitric acid.

  First, the ammonia is oxidized by being heated with oxygen under the presence of platinum acting as a catalyst to form nitric oxide and water. This reaction is highly exothermic and can be used as a heat source once activated.

·        4NH₃+ 5O₂ → (catalyst: platinum) 4NO+ 6H_2­O

·        2NO+ O₂→ 2NO₂

  Then, the nitric oxide is further oxidized in order to form nitrogen dioxide, where it is hydrated by dissolving it in water to produce nitric acid.

·        4NO₂+ O₂+ H₂O→ 4HNO₃

Uses of Explosives

  Explosives have a wide range of uses regarding to the characteristics of the explosives and the requirements of a certain field. According to the statistics in the pie chart, it says that explosives are used majority in mining, to extract resources from the earth’s crust while in minority; it is used for constructions and miscellaneous, excluding military uses.

·        Mining

-         The basic concept of mining is to the idea of breaking the rocks and abstracting the minerals or raw materials enclave inside. Therefore, explosives are crucial in mining as they can break a wide range of rocks effectively.

·        Construction

-         Tearing down buildings are troublesome and expensive while using explosives, with just a few charges, detonation and the correct timing, a building can be “toppled” down in just a matter of seconds by destroying its infrastructure.

·        Military

-         Fire power is needed for attacking and self-defense purposes where explosives are used for weapon makings, designed to create mass destruction.

·        Diamond Manufacturing

-         Premium quality diamonds are polished, carved with highly controlled explosives where it melts specific area of carbon present in the diamond, giving it its extra smooth surface and total internal reflection.

·        Fire Fighting

-         When there are no possible entrances into the fire scene, explosives are used to clear or make way by destroying walls or piles of rubble.  

  Uses of Explosives

  Explosives can be used to benefit the human race, by being able to mass produce what the explosives are used on in majority, increasing the efficiency and the development of technology.

   A country’s economy can be increased with new fields of business such as mining and raw materials processing through explosives, creating products and exporting them to all over the world. With the country’s economy increase, many could be done where the country can improve itself to benefit its fellow people.

  With the country’s financial increasing, health situations can be improved by the increased number of facilities located in the country. Medical technology can be brought to the next level where it can be bought from other countries or with the country’s own research and development facilities.

  Politically and social wise, countries will keep in touch with countries in order to sustain business relations with one another where the country can supply one another with resources which the other country is lack of.  In order to achieve that, countries must be in communication with each other frequently and develop mutual relations between one another to achieve business supremacy.

  Ethically, in the study of moral, explosives can bring a country its moral values of treating one another where they must tolerate and must develop relationships by treating one another well.

  Explosives can bring advantages to people where they bring people together, taking technology development to a higher level where humans can bring it to the solar system. However, there are some dangers which will prove crucial to the usage of explosives.

 

 

Danger of Explosives

  For every action, there will be a reaction. For every advantage explosives give us, there will be disadvantages. Handling and using explosives is a risky procedure where the return can be great. Such risks include unexpected detonations, machinery malfunctions, human errors which most probably will cause death or fatal injuries.

 

 However, putting aside the risks as they can be overcome by safety procedures, there will be still other factors which will affect the use of the explosives.

  The effect of explosives can be manipulated by how they are used. Therefore, it is crucial for the user to be using it accordingly to law and humanity. The danger is that if explosives are misused, mass destruction so extreme that it might wipe a country off a map.

  Politically, the danger of explosives being used to settle conflicts between countries instead of peace talks and contracts is high where tolerance is not given. Due to the development of technology, weapons nowadays can cause higher destructions and larger impacts to the world such as the nuclear warfare, destroying life and the natural habitat of mother earth.

   By going to war or destroying large parts of a country, this will cause a large impact on the world’s economy as countries are dependent on each other to provide certain resources or supplies. With land destroyed, production rate will drop causing the item to be rare and in terms of it, a sharp increase in price.

  From social perspective, explosives can lead to the danger of destroying the international social world, where explosive warfare will be noted in history and causes victim countries to remember and create despise or stereotypes on the attacking country, for instance, the Hiroshima incident in Japan during World War 2.

  By detonating explosives, many negatives of health will be triggered as explosives create large amount of acidic/ poisonous gases which will harm the body if inhaled. Also, radiations might be released regarding to the type of explosives used which will mutate or harm the body slowly or there will be no reasons for it to be called the “Silent Killer”.

  Morally, if one is overcome by greed, power and pride, explosives will be misused and humans will lose their humanities by taking down the decision of exterminating thousands of lives just for their own beneficial. This is the main reason of all the other points stated on top, the mindset of mankind.

Conclusion

  For a new use of explosives, I would recommend it for counterattacking incoming meteors as a sudden shock can be used to alter its path and change its intersection course.

                    

  Other than that, I can say that Alfred Nobel and Fritz Haber were depressed on their invention as it had brought destruction to the world by causing more deaths than men could have done due to its increased firepower.

 

  It is justified where Alfred Nobel was to set up the Nobel Prize foundation with all of his money to ward off his guilt by rewarding people who gave the world peace and also, Fritz Haber died of depression a year after his wife, who suicide as she couldn’t manage the pressure of Haber inventing the gas bombs used for killing the Jews during WW2, as he was responsible for millions of death.

  In conclusion, explosives are both good and bad. It depends on how the user uses it, therefore clarifying bad usages on explosives will mean a bad user, and it is not explosives to blame.