How to Use Nitroglycerin

Nitroglycerin is a pale yellow fluid with the molecular formula C3H5N3O9. It has distinct uses as an explosive and vasodilator. The following steps will show how nitroglycerin is used in these two categories.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Make dynamite with nitroglycerin. Dynamite is 75 percent nitroglycerin and 25 percent inert filler like wood pulp or some other absorbent material. The filler serves to separate and dilute the liquid nitroglycerin so that it is stable enough to be used. Sodium nitrate or ammonium nitrate is sometimes added to make the explosion more powerful.
2. Create blasting gelatin by diluting nitroglycerin with 7 to 8 percent nitrocellulose (gun cotton). Blasting gelatin is more powerful than dynamite, yet still relatively stable.
3. Mix 58 percent nitroglycerine, 37 percent gun cotton and 5 percent petroleum jelly. Dissolve this mixture in acetone and allow it to dry in long cords. This material is called cordite and, with variations, is still used as gunpowder.
4. Use nitroglycerin in a more dilute form to treat heart disease. Nitroglycerin can be administered as a tablet, ointment, patch or intravenously. The body converts nitroglycerin into nitric oxide, which is a vasodilator. The blood vessels in the heart dilate to relieve the chest pains caused by angina.
5. Apply an ointment using nitroglycerin externally to induce vasodilatation. This is useful in treating conditions such as anal fissures, impotence and brown recluse spider bites.

Tips & Warnings

• Nitroglycerin is unstable and the reagents involved in its manufacture are themselves quite dangerous. Do not try to make nitroglycerin yourself.