COMMON NAME – Composition C2

NAME – C2

TYPE – High explosive mixture

DATE FIRST USED AS AN EXPLOSIVE – 1943

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN – USA

COMPOSITION – 78.7% RDX, 12.0% Dinitrotoluene (oil), 5.0% TNT, 2.7% Mononitrotoluene, 0.6% Nitrocellulose, 1.0% Dimethylformamide

DENSITY – 1.57 g per ml

NORMAL STATE – Malleable solid

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE/COLOR – White

INITIATION – 0.25 g Lead Azide, 0.11 g Tetryl booster

SENSITIVITY – Slightly more sensitive to impact than TNT

STABILITY – Unstable in long-term storage

DETONATION VELOCITY – 7,925 m/s (26,000 fps)

RE FACTOR (BRISANCE) [TNT=1.0] – 1.34

TOXICITY – Toxic if ingested, releases toxic gases when burned

MELTING POINT – 0 to 40^o C. (32 to 104^o F.) remains plastic

IGNITION POINT – Above 52^o C. (125^o F.) becomes hard

FREEZING POINT – -30^o C. (-22^o F.) becomes hard and brittle

SOLUBILITY – Insoluble in water

APPLICATIONS – PRINCIPLE USES – Flexible, malleable plastic explosive for demolition

     Composition C2 was a reformulation of the original British Composition C as produced by the DuPont Company in the United States. Rather than using oil as the plasticizing mixture, Composition C2 used a number of explosive components to plasticize the base RDX. This mixture gave Composition C2 a greater resistance to heat, but also made the formulation slightly more volatile in storage. Composition C2 was considerably more plastic and flexible when used than the earlier formulation. In testing, Composition C2 proved to be slightly more sensitive to impact that the original formulation. It also was slightly more powerful an explosive due to the plasticizing materials used in its formulation.