Tetryl is a yellow crystalline solid powder material, practically insoluble in water but soluble in acetone, benzene and other solvents.

It burns readily and is more easily detonated than ammonium picrate[3] or TNT, being about as sensitive as picric acid.

It is generally used in the form of pressed pellets, and has been approved as the standard bursting charge for small-caliber projectiles, since it gives much better fragmentation than TNT.

A mixture of mercury fulminate and potassium chlorate is included in the cap to ensure detonation of tetryl.

Tetryl is no longer manufactured or used in the United States, but can still be found in legacy munitions such as the M14 anti-personnel landmine.

However, in the 1930s a more economical route was commercialized, where methylamine produced by the Smoleński method (developed after WWI) reacts with dinitrochlorobenzene to make dinitromethylaniline which is then easily nitrated without byproducts.