r/science • u/Skoltech_ • 1d ago

Materials Science Scientists found many new molecules, some with over 75% of TNT's explosive power

https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2468606925000292
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u/StacyChadBecky 1d ago

I’m not sure I follow. Is it that hard to find things less explosive than TNT? 75% of means less powerful. It’s just a weird way of saying “scientists found many new molecules less explosive than TNT”

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u/KiwasiGames 1d ago

TNTs main value proposition isn’t even that it’s explosive. It’s that it will sit there not exploding until you want it to explode.

Most advances in conventional explosives have all been directed at this point. Make something that is stable under normal handling conditions and only explodes when you are ready for it.

Makes sense when you thing about it. Most of an average explosives life cycle is spent not exploding.

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u/beipphine 1d ago

On the other hand, a few advances in conventional explosives have been directed at increasing how energetic the material is even at the expense of stability. Derek Lowe has an article in his Things I Won't Work With Series called "Azidoazide Azides"

Out of it we get lovely quotes like

"The compound is wildly, ridiculously endothermic, with a heat of formation of 357 kcal/mole, all of which energy is ready to come right back out at the first provocation"

"The sensitivity of C2N14 is beyond our capabilities of measurement. The smallest possible loadings in shock and friction tests led to explosive decomposition"

"The compound exploded in solution, it exploded on any attempts to touch or move the solid, and (most interestingly) it exploded when they were trying to get an infrared spectrum of it. The papers mention several detonations inside the Raman spectrometer as soon as the laser source was turned on"