C-4 (explosive)
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C-4 or Composition 4 is a common variety of military plastic explosive.
C-4 is made up of explosive, binder, plasticizer and (lately) marker or taggant chemicals, such as 2, 3-dimethyl-2, 3-dinitrobutane (DMDNB) to help detect the explosive and identify its source. As in many plastic explosives the explosive material in C-4 is RDX (Cyclonite, cyclotrimethylene trinitramine) which makes up around 91% of the C-4 by weight. The plasticizer is di(2-ethylhexyl) or dioctyl sebacate (5.3%), the binder is polyisobutylene (2.1%). Another binder used is dioctyl adipate (DOA). A small amount of petroleum oil (1.6%) is also added.
C-4 is made by combining the RDX slurry with the binder dissolved in a solvent. The solvent is then removed and the mixture is dried and filtered. The final material is an off-white solid with the feel of soft clay.
C-4 is a development of a World War II material that mixed RDX with mineral oil and lecithin to achieve roughly the characteristics of plastic explosive but with certain disadvantages. C-4 is part of a group of explosives along with C, C2 and C3, each containing different amounts of RDX developed in the 1960s. It can reportedly be shot upon or even thrown into a fire without detonating.
The C is sometimes said to stand for composition and the name is an abbreviation of Composition 4. However, composition is used for any stable explosive and composition A and composition B are also known variants. Therefore correctly C4 is Composition C-4.
External links
- HowStuffWorks article (http://www.howstuffworks.com/c-4.htm)de:C-4 (Sprengstoff)