Howdy!

On Sun, May 27, 2018 at 6:16 PM, Bruce  Johnson
<xxxxxx@pharmacy.arizona.edu> wrote:
>
>
>> On May 27, 2018, at 3:46 AM, xxxxxx@gmail.com wrote:
>>
>> On 26 May 2018 at 16:03, Thomas Jones-Low wrote:
>>
>>> On 5/26/2018 3:48 PM, Timothy Collinson wrote:
>>>
>>>> I needed to name some TL4 explosives (on Pysadi, harvesting howood)
>>>> and came up with quadroglycerine - it was supposed to be a sort of
>>>> homage to triticale being turned into quadrotriticale for Star
>>>> Trek's Trouble With Tribbles episode.  But is the nature of
>>>> glycerine such that that's just completely ridiculous?
>>>>
>>>
>>> Welll, there is Nitroglycerin aka trinitroglycerine, and
>>> Trinitrotoluene (aka
>>> TNT). Glycerine doesn't have the attachment for additional nitrogen
>>> groups.
>>>
>>> TNT on the other hand. In theory, since the core of toluene is a
>>> benzene ring,
>>> you can attach up to 6 NO2 groups. Of course these are unstable, and
>>> adding more makes the explosive more powerful. So QNT would be really
>>> scary stuff.
>>
>> You want scary?
>>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octaazacubane
>>
>> More than 5 times as powerful as TNT. And it decomposes into nitrogen
>> gas (so no toxic fumes).
>>
>> Then there's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubic_gauche_nitrogen
>> which is 50% more energetic.
>>
>> For that matter, metallic hydrogen (if it turns out to be metastable)
>> would be around 50 times as powerful as TNT. Of course, all those
>> very energetic hydrogen ions encountewring oxygen (and nitrogen) in
>> air would boost things a fair bit.
>>
>> If you want something less drastic try
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octanitrocubane
>
> There’s a chemist who has (had? it’s been a while) a blog detailing ‘Scary things people make in chemistry labs’ mainly about really unstable compounds.
>
> It’s an entertaining/horrifying read for someone chemically inclined, lots of notes about ‘Do not let this compound get above -50 degrees.’ or ‘all apparatus must be completely dry at all times, trace amounts of water will cause it to explode/deflagrate/burn uncontrollably’, etc. Also tales of stuff that makes Alien blood eating it’s way through 5 decks look like ‘oops I spilled some kool-aid, time for some Bounty!'
>
> I may have even been introduced to him here at some point over the years...

Are you thinking of Derek Lowe, whose blog includes a category "Things
I Won't Work With",
which includes some compounds with way too many nitrogen atoms jammed
in. For example:

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2011/11/11/things_i_wont_work_with_hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane

yours,
Michael
>
>
> --
> Bruce Johnson
> University of Arizona
> College of Pharmacy
> Information Technology Group
>
> Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs
>
>
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--
Michael Houghton   | Herveus d'Ormonde
xxxxxx@gmail.com         | White Wolf and the Phoenix
Lanham, MD, USA            | Tablet and Inkle bands, and other stuff
                          | http://whitewolfandphoenix.com