2, 4, 6 Tri-nitrotoluene commonly known as TNT is one of the safest and most widely used energetic material for both military as well as commercial purposes. During Second World War, a huge quantity of TNT was used for filling of various conventional munitions used against adversaries. Resultantly, large numbers of unserviceable munitions were left unused and were either disposed of through conventional disposal techniques such as open burn open detonation, sea dumping, incineration, biological degradation or buried underground without proper disposal. A number of accidents have been reported during disposal of these unserviceable and unwanted munitions. To avoid such a detrimental situation, global efforts were made in the past for re-use of unwanted energetic materials but still a lot more effort is needed in this regard. The present work is aimed at the safe conversion of decanted TNT into commercial grade energetic material which can be utilized for mining, quarrying, underwater blast activities. For this purpose, various materials / ingredients have been used with decanted TNT for the synthesis of newly formed melt cast commercial grade energetic material. This particular sample has further been characterized through Thermo gravimetric/ Differential Thermal Analysis (TG/DTA), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) techniques for the identification of various aspects. Results show that the newly synthesized sample has a clear, compact and smooth morphology with almost negligible numbers of cracks and pores unlike decanted TNT in unserviceable state. This process of synthesis and reutilization is not only safe and economical but also environment friendly.


Muhammad Farooq Ahmed, Arshad Hussain and Abdul Qadeer Malik