Synthesis and identification of organic components of 'Red Oil' (contact research)

To make clear the organic constituents of the energetic material described as 'Red Oil', laboratory studies were made on the synthesis and identification of chemical constituents of the materials obtained in the synthesis. In the studies, the synthesis was made using a variety of solvent systems (100%TBP/HNO3, 100%TBP/HNO3/U, 30%TBP/70%n-Dodecane/HNO3, 30%TBP/70%n-Dodecane/HNO3/U) with an experimental apparatus (1.0 liter under) under conditions, e.g., a temperature range 129 - 192degC and a reaction time 90 - 270 minutes, and GC and GC/MS techniques were mainly used for the identification. A GC analysis showed that the 'Red Oil' prepared from a solvent system (30%TBP/70%n-Dodecane/HNO3) should comprised more than 150 degraded products, 94 products of which were identified purely by a GC/MS technique. Major components found, except for TBP and n-Dodecane being used as the starting materials, were mono- and di-nitro compounds of them, dodecanones, n-butyl nitrate, DBP and MBP. The quantitative analysis of gases formed in the 'Red Oil' synthesis experiments showed that they consisted of various compounds, the order of decreasing content in volume % were NO2 (23 - 50), CO2 (17 - 34), N2O(5.5 - 15), N2(4.3 - 12), CO(4 - 12), NO(1.5 - 8), and hydrocarbons (0.7 - 1.2), and that no detectable presence of O2 and N2. Most of the components in the distillated volatiles collected in the condenser were n-botyl nitrate, but n-butanol were found in relatively small quantities. No significant effect of uranyl nitrate was found on the organic constituents in the 'Red Oil' synthesized. (author)