COMMON NAME – RDX

NAME – Research Department Explosive “X”

CHEMICAL NAME – Cyclohexamethylene Trinitramine

FOREIGN NAMES – Cyclonite (United States), RDX (Great Britain), Hexogen (Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland), Hexogene (Belgium, France) Tanoyaku, Shouyaku, Chauyaku (Japan), T4 (France, Italy, Spain),

Ciclonita (Spain), Gheksoghen (Soviet Union), Exogene (Italy), E-Salz, K-Salz, KA-Salz, SH-Salz, & W-Salz (Germany)

TYPE – High explosive

DATE OF DISCOVERY – 1899

DATE FIRST USED AS AN EXPLOSIVE – 1920

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN – Germany

MOLECULAR FORMULA – C₃H₆N₆O₆

MOLECULAR WEIGHT – 222

DENSITY – 1.70 g per ml @ 206,850 kPa (30,000 psi)

NORMAL STATE – White crystalline solid

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE/COLOR – White or colorless crystals

INITIATION – 0.19 g Mercury fulminate, 0.05 g Lead azide

SENSITIVITY – Relatively sensitive. Explodes on steel shoe strike, rifle bullet impact. Detonates when a 2.0 kg (4 lb 6.5 oz) weight) dropped 32 cm (12.6 in) on sample on steel surface.

STABILITY – Stable in storage, equal to TNT

DETONATION VELOCITY – 8,350 m/s (27,395 fps)

RE FACTOR (BRISANCE) [TNT=1.0] – 1.60

TOXICITY – Not markedly toxic

MELTING POINT – 202^o C.(396^o F.)

IGNITION POINT – 213^o C.(415^o F.)

SOLUBILITY – Insoluble in Water, Alcohol, Ether, Benzene, Toluene, Carbon tetrachloride, & Chloroform. Readily soluble in Acetone.

APPLICATIONS – PRINCIPLE USES – Ingredient for many explosive compositions including plastic explosives, Base charge for detonators.

     RDX is a common name for a very powerful and widely used military explosive. It is also called Cyclonite, Hexogen, and less commonly by its chemical name, Cyclohexamethylene Trinitramine. The crystalline explosive was first widely used during World War II when all of the major combatants employed RDX, usually in an explosive mixture. It has been used as a base charge in detonators, in the same manner as Tetryl, as well as for a bursting charge in smaller shells. For these applications, the crystals of RDX are normally coated with a small quantity of wax for desensitization. With about the same level of sensitivity as Tetryl, RDX in a pure form could be detonated too easily for it to be used as a demolition explosive. It was during the 1930s that the British War Department developed a very useful explosive material with RDX as its active component. This material was basically RDX mixed with an oily plasticizer which resulted in a flexible powerful explosive that could be shaped by hand to fit against a target, the contact greatly increasing the efficiency of the blast. This plastic explosive was first referred to as PE by the British. Later formulations of PE had an additional number attached to the designator, such as PE2. The original formulation of this explosive was adopted by the United States military as Composition C.