Silver acetylide
Explosive silver
Light-sensitive, white solid
Fixed
Decomposition from 120 ° C
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Silver acetylide is an initiating explosive with the chemical formula Ag2C2 and a detonation velocity of about 4000 m · s -1.
Properties and hazards
Silver acetylide forms white, explosive crystals and is one of the carbides. Since the carbide ion [ C ≡ C ] 2 - can be derived formally from ethyne ( acetylene), you count it to a subgroup of the carbides, namely the acetylides. The compound is friction sensitive at a load of 0.1N.
Use
Due to the sensitivity and instability during storage is no technical application.
Production on a laboratory scale
At the laboratory scale production is made of the low solubility of silver acetylide in water advantage: When gaseous ethyne is introduced into an aqueous solution of a readily soluble silver salt, silver acetylide obtained as colorless to gray precipitate out. This can be filtered off and dried carefully. For this, proceed with extreme caution, as silver acetylide to uncontrolled decomposition (explosion) tends. The production is more successful if ethyne is passed into an ammoniacal silver salt solution, since ammonia formally binds the protons of ethyne. Silver acetylide then falls off in large quantities.