Ecrasite is an explosive material which is unaffected by moisture, shock or fire.
[1] It is a mixture of ammonium salts of cresol, phenol and various nitrocresols and nitrophenols principally trinitrocresol and picric acid.
It was invented in 1888-1889 by two Austrian engineers named Siersch and Kubin, and used in Austria-Hungary to load artillery shells.
[2] Ecrasite is prepared by the partial nitration of a crude mixture of cresol and phenol with a mixture of concentrated sulfuric and nitric acids and the neutralisation of the product with ammonia to produce a crude salt similar to ammonium picrate.
Its general adoption was hindered by several unexplained explosions during loading into shells, which might have been caused by creation of unstable metal salts of trinitrocresol and/or trinitrophenol when the explosive came in contact with metals or alloys such as copper, brass (widely used for manufacturing detonator parts) and possibly other ones.