On the Further Development of Silver Nitrotetrazolate for Practical Use as a Primary Explosive

ABSTRACT Silver nitrotetrazolate (AgNT) is a less‐known but very powerful primary explosive with fast deflagration‐to‐detonation transition (DDT). Unfortunately, the compound never found any practical application due to its undesirable powder properties paired with a very high sensitivity toward mechanical stimuli. The adaption of conditions similar to those used in the Costain process resulted in precipitation of a new compound AgNT·¼NH 3 , incorporating 0.25 eq. ammonia, proven by single crystal x‐ray diffraction and elemental analysis. This compound has been characterized and optimized for use as a primary explosive and shows greatly enhanced properties over common silver nitrotetrazolate.