A phlegmatized explosive is an explosive that has had an agent (a

phlegmatizer A phlegmatizer is a compound that minimizes the explosive tendency of compound or material. The term is derived from the word phlegmatic, meaning 'not easily excited'. Many chemical compounds that are potentially explosive have useful non-explosive ...

) added to stabilize or desensitize it. Phlegmatizing usually improves the handling properties of an explosive (e.g. when munitions are filled in factories. Alfred Nobel's breakthrough was the use of cellulose nitrate to phlegmatize

nitroglycerine Nitroglycerin (NG), (alternative spelling of nitroglycerine) also known as trinitroglycerin (TNG), nitro, glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), or 1,2,3-trinitroxypropane, is a dense, colorless, oily, explosive liquid most commonly produced by nitrating ...

. The phlegmatized product is dynamite. TNT explosive can itself be used to phlegmatize more sensitive explosives such as

RDX RDX (abbreviation of "Research Department eXplosive") or hexogen, among other names, is an organic compound with the formula (O2N2CH2)3. It is a white solid without smell or taste, widely used as an explosive. Chemically, it is classified as a ...

(to form

Cyclotol Cyclotol is an explosive consisting of castable mixtures of RDX and TNT. It is related to the more common Composition B, which is roughly 60% RDX and 40% TNT; various compositions of Cyclotol contain from 65% to 80% RDX. Typical ranges are from 60 ...

), HMX (to form

Octol {{Short description, A high explosive mixture consisting of HMX and TNT Octol is a melt-castable, high explosive mixture consisting of HMX and TNT in different weight proportions. Composition Two formulations are commonly used: * 70% HMX & 30% T ...

) or

PETN Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), also known as PENT, PENTA, (ПЕНТА, primarily in Russian) TEN, corpent, or penthrite (or, rarely and primarily in German, as nitropenta), is an explosive material. It is the nitrate ester of pentaerythri ...

(to form

Pentolite Pentolite is a composite high explosive used for military and civilian purposes, e.g., warheads and booster charges. It is made of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) phlegmatized with trinitrotoluene (TNT) by melt casting.B. M. Dobratz & P. C. C ...

). Other typical phlegmatizing agents include

paraffin wax Paraffin wax (or petroleum wax) is a soft colorless solid derived from petroleum, coal, or oil shale that consists of a mixture of hydrocarbon molecules containing between 20 and 40 carbon atoms. It is solid at room temperature and begins to ...

(5% used in

OKFOL OKFOL is an explosive, used in a variety of applications. It is particularly suitable for use in shaped charges. It normally consists of 95% HMX phlegmatized with 5% wax. It has a density of 1.777 grams per cubic centimetre, explosive veloc ...

and

Composition H6 __NOTOC__ Composition H6 is a castable military explosive mixture composed of the following percentages by weight: * 44.0% RDX * 29.5% TNT * 21.0% powdered aluminium * 5.0% paraffin wax as a phlegmatizing agent. * 0.5% calcium chloride H6 i ...

), paper or even water (used in water gel explosives). Such agents are nearly always flammable themselves (therefore adding fuel to the blast) or will at least boil off easily. Typically, a small amount of phlegmatizing agent is used e.g. Composition B, which has 1% paraffin wax added, or the Russian RGO hand grenade which contains 90 grams of "A-IX-1" explosive, comprising 96%

and 4% paraffin wax by weight. Another example of use is the VS-50 mine, VS-50 antipersonnel mine, which contains an explosive filling of 43 grams of

, again phlegmatized by combining it with 10%

by weight.

References

Explosives {{Explosive-stub