Dinitroguanidine

Dinitroguanidine, also 1,2-dinitroguanidine, is perhaps the most powerful explosive which can be created by an individual or group without substantial investments in chemical developments, though substantial chemical knowledge is required. Dinitroguanidine will form salts with many cations, many of which are more unstable than dinitroguanidine on its own.

Production

The simplest path to make dinitroguanidine starts with a niter pile or forced air aqueous nitrate generator which converts the urea in urine into ammonium nitrate. The ammonium nitrate can be extracted from solution by boiling it down and refined by recrystallization. Urea can be obtained from urine by boiling it down and purified by recrystallization. Urea and ammonium nitrate are mixed in a 1:1 ratio along with silica gel and are gently heated for 2 hours or until ammonia production slows down. This ammonia can be captured with a gas trap and either fed into an aqueous nitrate generator to feed forward into ammonium nitrate production or can be saved for a later step. After the 2 hours of heating, an additional half part (by weight) urea should be added to the mix with stirring and the mix should be heated for another 2-3 hours. After this, the mix should be allowed to cool until solidified at which point it should then be dissolved in boiling water, filtered, and left to cool slowly. This will allow guanidium nitrate to crystalize out of solution. Guanidium nitrate can then be mixed with oleum (at least 80% SO3) and red fuming nitric acid in a ratio of 3:3:4 for 1.5 hours in a cold environment, ideally below 7°C. This can be extracted by neutralizing with lime or slaked lime (calcium carbonate or calcium hydroxide), filtering off the precipitate, and then allowing the product to crystalize out of solution as the calcium salt of dinitroguanidine. The major byproduct of the nitration is urea nitrate which is also a highly potent explosive.