purity the supernatant liquor which contains solubilized triazolone is removed and may be recycled to the formic acid stripping step the recrystallization step may be repeated if desired 1 2 4 triazol 5 one crystals produced by the novel process of the invention are highly pure and are free of any detectable chloride ions the to product will not result in corrosion when used in castable explosives such as 3 nitro 1 2 4 triazol 5 one these crystals may be dried or further reacted to produce any desired derivative thus the novel process of the present invention results in high yields of high purity to that is free of chloride ion in addition the process which can be operated continuously generates effluents which after neutralization can be readily disposed of in public waterways the following examples further illustrate the novel process of the invention without any intention of being limited thereby all parts and percentages are by weight unless otherwise specified all patents and patent applications referred to herein are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety hdca 11 8 g 0 1 mole was slurried in 96 formic acid 69 g and heated to reflux after 13 hours a clear colorless solution resulted the majority of the formic acid was removed under vacuum leaving a wet white solid the product was slurried with 60 ml of methanol filtered and washed with an additional 40 ml obtained was 6 g of solid melting at 225 u00b0 227 u00b0 c a 70 yield the infra red spectrum matched that of an authentic sample hdca 12 g 0 l mole was slurried in 80 ml of 96 formic acid.