Cold Detonation Physics

Cold Detonation Physics (CDP) is a unique field of explosives that is based on the shock-sensitive rapid reduction of carbon dioxide to carbon, which is achieved by an intimate combination of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) and one or more reducing agents such as elemental magnesium or aluminum for the purpose of producing diamond for industrial applications. Just as with conventional explosives, a detonatable CDP formulation is capable of obliterating a steel pipe, upheaving aggregate rock material such as in quarry blasting, and generates a loud sonic boom when used. As with blends of the organic explosives TNT and RDX, which produce carbon and therefore nanodiamond upon detonation, CDP detonations produce carbon and can therefore be employed for the same purpose.
Conventional explosives such as TNT, RDX, ANFO and Composition B operate on the principle of shock-initiated rapid oxidation of carbon and hydrogen by a nitrogen-based oxygen carrier, such as a nitrate, to produce carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, water in the form of steam, nitrogen gas and nitric oxides. The energy of combustion of carbon and hydrogen fuel heats and pressurizes the waste gases in manner that facilitates the rapid propagation of a shock wave. The initiation shock wave, which triggers the rapid combustion reaction of typically a cylindrically shaped portion of explosive material, is commonly delivered by an electric detonator or an electric detonator in conjunction with an explosive booster.
By comparison, CDP does not create waste gases upon detonation and produces a high percentage of solids, including elemental carbon. The only gas involved in the detonation mechanics of CDP is excess carbon dioxide that is vaporized at the wave front. Consequently, the detonation does not produce carbon monoxide, water or nitric oxides and only releases excess carbon dioxide added to the formulation.
The invention was patented by Canadian inventor, Daren Swanson.
<big>Chemistry of CDP Detonation</big>
discloses a mixture of elemental magnesium and carbon dioxide in the form of dry ice releases 8.75 kJ/g of stoichiometric mixture according to the following chemical reaction (see Column 5, Line 37):
2Mg + CO2 ----> 2MgO + C
and Column 7, Line 62 discloses the weight percentage breakdown of this reaction:
52.5% Mg + 47.5% CO2 ----> 87.0% MgO + 13.0% C
CDP formulations based on elemental magnesium detonate to produce solid magnesium oxide and carbon in various phases. High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy analysis of the detonation byproducts reveals carbon in the form of nanodiamond, nanotubes and graphite.
The addition of excess dry ice to a stoichiometric formulation increases the velocity of detonation because of how dry ice is vaporized to carbon dioxide gas at high pressure due to the large energy output of the stoichiometric reaction. The enthalpy of sublimation of dry ice is relatively low at 0.571 kJ/g considering the stoichiometric equation generates 8.75 kJ per gram of mixture. Adding excess dry ice, therefore, reduces the overall energy of the reaction in direct proportion to the amount of dry ice added while increasing the pressure at the detonation wave front.
To account for the effect of adding excess carbon dioxide, the reaction equation can be written as follows for CDP magnesium formulations:
2Mg + xCO2 ----> 2MgO + C + (1-x)CO2
Many reducing agents and reducing agent combinations may be used to produce detonatable CDP formulations. Examples of such reducing agents are aluminum, boron and silicon.

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