Solubility of 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene (TNT) in Water

Current literature values of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) solubility in water vary widely from 100 to 200 mg/L at room temperature. We investigated the effects of temperature and pH on the solubility of both reference TNT and field neat TNT obtained from the Alabama Army Ammunition Plant (AAAP), Childersburg, AL. The TNT solubility determined from this study was significantly lower than that of Taylor and Rinkenbach, which was cited by several reference chemical handbooks and articles. However, the values reported by the Merck Index and the Lange's Handbook of Chemistry compared well with our values. TNT solubility dropped rapidly as the pH increased. Three unknown HPLC peaks were observed at high pH, indicating a possibility of forming unknown transformation products. Both reference and field neat TNT solubility agreed well. A semiempirical solubility correlation was developed to predict the solubility of TNT at a temperature range from 6 °C to 42 °C.