Picryl chloride is an
organic compound
In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. T ...
with the formula ClC
6H
2(NO
2)
3. It is a bright yellow solid that is highly explosive, as is typical for polynitro aromatics such as
picric acid. Its
detonation velocity
Explosive velocity, also known as detonation velocity or velocity of detonation (VoD), is the velocity at which the shock wave front travels through a detonated explosive. Explosive velocities are always faster than the local speed of sound in t ...
is 7,200 m/s.
Reactions
The reactivity of picryl chloride is strongly influenced by the presence of three
electron-withdrawing
In chemistry, an electron-withdrawing group (EWG) is a substituent that has some of the following kinetic and thermodynamic implications:
*with regards to electron transfer, electron-withdrawing groups enhance the oxidizing power tendency of th ...
nitro group
In organic chemistry, nitro compounds are organic compounds that contain one or more nitro functional groups (). The nitro group is one of the most common explosophores (functional group that makes a compound explosive) used globally. The nitr ...
s. Consequently picryl chloride is an electrophile as illustrated by its reactivity toward
sulfite to give the
sulfonate
In organosulfur chemistry, a sulfonate is a salt or ester of a sulfonic acid. It contains the functional group , where R is an organic group. Sulfonates are the conjugate bases of sulfonic acids. Sulfonates are generally stable in water, non-o ...
:
:ClC
6H
2(NO
2)
3 + Na
2SO
3 → NaO
3SC
6H
2(NO
2)
3 + NaCl
Picryl chloride is also a strong electron acceptor. It forms a 1:1
charge-transfer complex with
hexamethylbenzene
Hexamethylbenzene, also known as mellitene, is a hydrocarbon with the molecular formula C12H18 and the condensed structural formula C6(CH3)6. It is an aromatic compound and a derivative of benzene, where benzene's six hydrogen atoms have each ...
.
References
Explosive chemicals
Nitrobenzenes
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