urbaf2

NITRO DERIVATIVES OF TOLUENE 293

The solubility of α− trinitrotoluene in nitric acid is high even when the acid is

relatively dilute (Table 64). This property is sometimes used in industry to crystal-

lize TNT.
α− Trinitrotoluene dissolves readily in organic solvents, such as acetone, ben-

zene, and toluene. The corresponding data, after Taylor and Rinkenbach [40],

are presented in Table 65.

TABLE 62

SOLUBILITY OF α− α− TRINITROTOLUENE IN SULPHURIC ACID (IN %)

Concentration

H 2 SO 4 , %

Temperature

°C

0

10

20

25

30

40

50

60

70

80

70 75

-. 0.3

• 0.3
  0.3
  .- 0.32
  -- 0.35
  0.2 0.4
  0.2 0.45
  0.22 0.50
  0.35 0.7
  0.6 1.3

80 85 90

0.4

0.45

0.50

0.55

0.60

0.65

0.70

1.0

1.6

2.4

0.6

0.75

0.85

0.95

1.0

1.3

1.7

2.3

3.3

4.8

95 100

2.0 3.5 13.0

2.2 4.0 13.5

2.5 4.8 15.0

2.6 5.2 15.5

2.7 6.0 16.5

3.0 7.0 18.0

3.5 8.5 21.0

5.2 11.0 24.8

7.0 13.5 29.0

10.0 18.0 26.5

TABLE 63

SOLUBILITY OF α− TRINlTROTOLUENE IN ACID MIXTURES

Composition of the mixture, % Solubility, %

H 2 SO 4 HNO 3 H 2 O 20°C at 50°C

60 0 40 0.20 0.52

at 70°C

0.70

80 0 20 0.59 1.25 2.07

90 0 10 2.55 4.70 7.63

60 1 39 0.22 0.41 0.62

80 1 19 0.55 1.08 1.68

90 1 9 1.85 4.35 7.49

60 5 35 0.25 0.55 1.23

80 5 15 0.73 1.48 1.85

90 5 5 1.76 4.49 7.53

100 parts of carbon disulphide dissolve 0.4 parts of α− trinitrotoluene at 15°C
and 2.7 parts at 46°C.

α− Trinitrotoluene forms eutectics with higher nitrated aromatic compounds

and with nitric esters. Some of them have a considerable practical importance

such as the mixtures of α− trinitrotoluene with cyclonite, pentaerythritol tetra-

nitrate, tetryl etc. (Vol. IV).