Formic acid danger from formic acid is from skin or eye contact with the concentrated liquid or vapors. The U.S. OSHA Permissible Exposure Level (PEL) of formic acid vapor in the work environment is 5 parts per million parts of air (ppm). Formic acid Formic acid, systematically named methanoic acid, is the simplest carboxylic acid. The chemical formula is HCOOH or HCOH. It is an important intermediate in chemical synthesis and occurs naturally, most notably in some ants. The word "formic" comes from the Latin word for ant, "formica", referring to its early isolation by the distillation of ant bodies. Esters, salts,
Picric acid control is required. Another route of picric acid synthesis is direct nitration of 2,4-Dinitrophenol with nitric acid. By far, the largest use has been in munitions and explosives. Explosive D, also known as Dunnite, is the ammonium salt of picric acid—more powerful but less stable than the more common explosive TNT (which is produced in a similar process to picric acid but with toluene as the feedstock). Picramide, formed by aminating picric acid (typically beginning with Dunnite), can be further aminated to produce the highly stable explosive TATB. It has found some use in organic chemistry for the preparation of