Kemtrail Posted August 19 Posted August 19 Hi, I won this wonderful, inert, WWII 37mm Japanese cannon round from a local estate auction. Apparently, in WWII the Japanese used picric acid in these explosive tipped projectiles. As you can see in the pictures, it was disarmed and cleaned out, but a little residue must have remained, crystalizing on the metal inside over the decades since. This is probably ferric picrate salts or crystals. It's been in a wood box getting bounced around for years, and the residue amount is small, so I'm not overly concerned about its explosive volatility. However, I'd like to neutralize these crystals and clean this residue out. After some research, my plan is to soak it in a gallon of distilled water with a box of baking soda mixed in. I'll leave it for a day or 2, then give it a scrub with a nylon brush, rinse it off with some more water, dry it, and wipe it down with Acetone. To the chemistry folk, does this seem like a valid plan to achieve neutralization? Thanks for any input!
greenlight Posted August 19 Posted August 19 Are you 100% sure the filler for those shells was trinitrophenol? Picrate salts are usually yellow to brown, I've never seen green but that could just be some other side reaction or due to the lack of oxygen inside during storage causing that colouration. I do know that ferric (iron) picrate has a high water of crystallisation. There's something like 6 to 8 water molecules per iron picrate molecule which reduces its sensitivity to shock and friction by a high degree. This would also explain the lack of issues storing and bouncing around for years. I have read that Fentons reagent destroys picric acid but I am not sure about picrate salts. Considering it is an acidic salt, the bicarbonate could work too if its strong enough. It's hard to find much information on the different salts and their destruction.
Kemtrail Posted August 19 Author Posted August 19 All historical references and other info I've read, as well as the input I've gotten from a Japanese Ordnance Facebook group indicate the Japanese used Shimose powder, which is picric acid. To my eye, the crystals look white. I'm sure the white balance on my phone camera doesn't represent it best. I ran across this old study: https://www.jes.or.jp/mag/stem/Vol.63/documents/Vol.63,No.4,p.151-155.pdf, which confirms what you said, and would explain the stability after being bounced around so much. I ran across Fenton's reagent too, but there isn't a lot of info out there about any of this. Thanks for your input and knowledge!
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