Picric acid converted it to acetylsalicylic acid, i.e., aspirin, to keep it from the Allies. See Great Phenol Plot. At the time, phenol was obtained from coal as a co-product of coke ovens and the manufacture of gas for gas lighting. Laclede Gas reports being asked to expand production of phenol (and toluene) to support the war effort. Both Monsanto and Dow Chemical undertook manufacture of synthetic phenol in 1915. Dow was the leading producer. Dow describes picric acid as “the main battlefield explosive used by the French. Large amounts [of phenol] also went to Japan, where it was made into picric
Perrhenic acid Perrhenic acid Perrhenic acid is the chemical compound with the formula . It is obtained by evaporating aqueous solutions of . Conventionally, perrhenic acid is considered to have the formula , and a species of this formula forms when rhenium(VII) oxide sublimes in the presence of water or steam. When a solution of is kept for a period of months, it breaks down and crystals of are formed, which contain tetrahedral For most purposes, perrhenic acid and rhenium(VII) oxide are used interchangeably. Rhenium can be dissolved in nitric or concentrated sulfuric acid to produce perrhenic acid. The structure of solid