Speaking of nitroglycerin , we must definitely mention a well-known person, Alfred Nobel (1833-1896).
The Nobel Prize has been around for a hundred years. As of 2018, 590 awards have been awarded, and a total of 935 individuals or organizations have won the award. To this day, the Nobel Prize has always been regarded as one of the most important honors in various fields.
Nobel has obtained as many as 355 technical invention patents in his lifetime, but he is most famous for his invention of the nitroglycerin detonator (detonator), yellow explosive and plastic explosive, and he is known as the "King of Explosives".
Nobel has been tied to nitroglycerin almost all his life. The invention of nitroglycerin dynamite brought Nobel huge wealth, which can be said to be both fame and fortune. In his later years, Nobel suffered from heart disease, and the medicine that solved his pain was also nitroglycerin.
However, the first inventor of this substance that Nobel spent almost his entire life researching was not actually Nobel. What's going on?
Alfred Bernhard Nobel
Nitroglycerin, also known as nitroglycerin . In 1847, the Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero discovered that glycerol could be obtained by treating glycerol with nitric acid and sulfuric acid. A yellow oily transparent liquid, this liquid is quite violent in temperament and very powerful. It can easily explode. An accidental vibration may cause a violent explosion. In this sense, Sobrero is the "father of nitroglycerin".
Nitroglycerin structural formula
Although nitroglycerin has amazing explosive power, due to its very unstable nature, it will explode if you are not careful. Therefore, its production, transportation and use have been seriously affected for a long time. limits. After all, no one dares to keep something like this that can explode at any time around them.
It was not until the emergence of Nobel that this fierce wild horse was tamed.
Of course, Nobel did not succeed in one attempt. He went through countless experiments before turning nitroglycerin into a controllable explosive, but he also paid a heavy price. His brother died due to the accidental explosion of nitroglycerin.
In the process of studying nitroglycerin, the explosive that made Nobel a great success for the first time is called yellow explosive. The yellow explosive is to penetrate nitroglycerin into diatomite , because diatomite has better The ability to absorb water and the insensitive nature of diatomaceous earth can make nitroglycerin safer and controllable during transportation, production and use. But in Nobel's view, infiltrating nitroglycerin into diatomaceous earth is not the best way, because diatomaceous earth will weaken the explosive power of nitroglycerin. This is because diatomite is chemically inert and does not react with nitric acid. Not only does the explosion of glycerin not participate in any reaction, but it also absorbs part of the heat of the explosion of nitroglycerin, weakening a quarter of the power of nitroglycerin; moreover, when the temperature and humidity change, the absorption capacity of diatomaceous earth will change. , sometimes nitroglycerin will leak out, causing hidden dangers. These are areas that require further improvement.
Nobel has been looking for a better substance than diatomite, which is as safe as diatomaceous earth and can maintain or even increase the explosive power of nitroglycerin. Nobel conducted countless experiments but failed to achieve a breakthrough. Until one day in 1875, Nobel accidentally cut his finger during an experiment and bandaged it with cellulose glue. That night, the severe pain in his fingers prevented him from sleeping. He suddenly thought about what would happen if he mixed nitroglycerin and cellulose gel solution.
Nitrocellulose was invented by the famous British chemistry professor Frederick Aibel in the 1960s. nitric acid and sulfuric acid are mixed in a certain proportion, and then cotton fibers are immersed in it. After a period of reaction, it can Obtain guncotton ; the ratio of nitric acid to sulfuric acid is different, and the properties of the guncotton produced are also different. When the concentration of nitric acid is high, the guncotton obtained will explode when exposed to an open flame. When the concentration of nitric acid is low, the guncotton obtained Guncotton burns without exploding when exposed to fire. The latter is called low nitrification guncotton.Dissolve low-nitrified guncotton in a mixed solution of alcohol and ether to obtain a colloidal solution. After the solution evaporates, a white solid colloidal film called nitrocellulose is produced, which is used to bandage wounds.
After this idea appeared, Nobel couldn't sleep at all. At 4 o'clock in the morning, he rushed to the laboratory and started the experiment immediately. When his assistant Fehrenbach came to the laboratory early in the morning as usual, Nobel had already placed the first explosive gel in front of Fehrenbach. After
, Nobel and Fehrenbach conducted more than 250 experiments and determined that the optimal ratio of collodion to nitroglycerin was 8% to 92%. The colloidal explosive obtained in this way has stable performance, is safe and reliable, and has no reaction to higher temperatures and violent shocks. After being detonated with a detonator, its explosive power is nearly half that of the original! Not only that, this kind of plastic explosive is also highly waterproof, so it is particularly suitable for underwater blasting. Moreover, because of the characteristics of this kind of cellulose glue, it can be easily pressed into strips, ropes and other shapes, and can be shaped at will according to engineering requirements. Most people were dumbfounded when they saw this scene when they visited the factory. This kind of explosive is called plastic explosive or gelatin explosive.
Soon, plastic explosives were patented in many countries. Nobel quickly put it on the market and gave it names such as "Nobel's Yellow Dynamite", "Express Yellow Dynamite", "Explosive Glue", "Saxon Dynamite" and "Grey's Dynamite". As for There are many names given to it by other manufacturers that have not been mentioned here. It remained the most effective and best-selling explosive in industrial and transportation services for decades to come.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that in 1887, 12 years after the invention of plastic explosives, Alfred made another important new invention-smokeless gunpowder. This is a special type of gunpowder specifically used in the military field. It is made on the basis of explosive glue, adding 10% camphor and other additives. When burning, there is no smoke or only a very small amount of smoke, so the target will not be exposed on the battlefield and will not Produces smoke that blocks the shooting line of sight.
So how did nitroglycerin go from explosives to a heart drug?
A certain brand of nitroglycerin tablets
There are many theories about this. One theory is that after the mass production of nitroglycerin began, several incidents occurred. Several front-line production workers suddenly suffocated after returning home to sleep. Although they usually had no serious symptoms in the factory, it was found through examination that these workers all suffered from heart disease. But why did they not show signs of heart disease in the factory? So some doctors studied this issue and concluded that it was related to the nitroglycerin they inhaled at work.
Another theory is that many front-line production workers have been found to suffer severe headaches after being exposed to nitroglycerin or inhaling dust containing nitroglycerin. Dr. William Murrell noticed this phenomenon. After several years of research, he believed that this headache may be related to nitroglycerin. Workers would more or less inhale nitroglycerin during the production process, and nitroglycerin entered the human body. Afterwards, it causes the blood vessels in the brain to dilate, which can also cause a drop in blood pressure. Since nitroglycerin can cause dilation of cerebral blood vessels, can it also cause cardiovascular dilation?
In 1878, Dr. Mueller gave a 64-year-old elderly patient who had been smoking for a long time and had recurrent angina pectoris oral administration of diluted nitroglycerin solvent three times a day, and found that the patient's chest pain episodes were significantly reduced. Subsequently, this treatment method was used on more patients and achieved good therapeutic effects. In 1879, Mueller published his research results in The Lancet, and nitroglycerin began to be used clinically to treat angina. To this day, nitroglycerin still plays an important role in the treatment of coronary heart disease and angina pectoris. The mechanism and use of nitroglycerin in relieving angina pectoris are still being continuously explored and improved.
It also took a long time for nitroglycerin to be used as a drug to treat heart disease. The main reason may be related to people's understanding of nitroglycerin as an explosive. There was an incident circulating at that time, saying that an agricultural worker drank alcohol during a bet. He drank a vial of nitroglycerin and died on the roadside, frozen. The body was carried to an outhouse and placed near a stove with the intention of roasting it, but the nitroglycerin exploded and the entire building was destroyed. Of course, this is just a rumor and not enough to be believed, but we can also see from it that people at that time were worried about using a high explosive as a medicine.
The British Pharmacopoeia listed nitroglycerin as a drug for the first time in 1885; nitroglycerin in tablets and solvents was soon widely used to treat angina pectoris and other conditions.
