Continuous synthesis of a silver-based primary explosive with high purity

We present a continuous flow strategy for synthesizing a high-purity primary explosive, silver acetylide-silver nitrate (SASN), using a 3D-printed acetylene bubble generator coupled with a vibration device and a coiled tubular reactor. The mass transfer enhancement by the active mixing provided by vibration and Dean vortices in the coiled reactor mitigates the deposition of SASN particles on the reactor walls. We obtain high-purity SASN products by optimizing the reactor configuration and process conditions. SEM analysis indicates bulbous-shape SASN particles with 150–300 nm size in acetonitrile; DSC analysis reveals three main peaks between 180–230 °C and facilitates the evaluation of activation energies using the Ozawa method. The as-synthesized SASN exhibits excellent sensitivities as compared with other primary explosives. This gas–liquid-solid flow approach is effectively and safely scaled up by increasing the volumetric flowrate under fixed reaction time and can be readily extrapolated to other continuous syntheses with solids generation.