Pentolite

File:British_20_mm_Oerlikon_shell_diagrams.jpg shells (dating from circa 1945) showing color code for pentolite filling]]

Pentolite is a composite high explosive used for military and civilian purposes, e.g., warheads and booster charges. It is made of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) phlegmatized with trinitrotoluene (TNT) by melt casting.B. M. Dobratz & P. C. Crawford, LLNL Explosives Handbook, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, UCRL-52997, Change 2, January 31, 1985.

The most common military variety of pentolite (designated "Pentolite 50/50") is a mixture of 50% PETN and 50% TNT. (Unlike other compound explosives, the number before the slash is the mass percentage of TNT and the second number is the mass percentage of PETN.) This 50:50 mixture has a density of 1.65 g/cm³ and a detonation velocity of 7400 m/s.

Pentolite is a common explosive for cast boosters for the blasting work (as in mining).{{Cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Bruce A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qJJrYnpT2pYC&pg=PA547 |title=Surface Mining, Second Edition |date=1990 |publisher=SME |isbn=978-0-87335-102-7 |pages=547 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Rustan |first=Agne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idsQOABCipMC&pg=PA33 |title=Rock Blasting Terms and Symbols: A Dictionary of Symbols and Terms in Rock Blasting and Related Areas like Drilling, Mining and Rock Mechanics |date=1998 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-90-5410-441-4 |pages=33 |language=en}} Civilian pentolite may contain a lower percentage of PETN, e. g. around 2% ("Pentolite 98/2"), 5% ("Pentolite 95/5") or 10% ("Pentolite 90/10"). These civilian pentolites have a detonation velocity of about 7,800 metres per second.