Questions tagged [explosives]
Questions discussing explosive nature of chemicals. Also, consider using the safety tag.
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Does gunpowder (black powder) melt when heated?
I was just watching a video about yellow powder (similar formula to black powder, but with potassium carbonate instead of charcoal), and I was wondering:
Does regular black powder melt (and ...
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Criterion for a good explosive
For a mixture to be good explosive, it's components should react violently. In other words it should release more energy in less time. Thus enthalpy change of the reaction should be very high and rate ...
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Could an airborne swarm of small insects explode? [closed]
I know that fine-grained organic matter such as flour or pollen can be quite explosive if ignited. It also seems logical to me that the explosiveness of such an organic powder is determined by many ...
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Weight Ratio vs Molar Ratio - Chloramines
I'm working with a delicate experiment whilst trying to test corrosion of stainless-steels in a chloramine environment. I've run into various literature that discusses the formation of different types ...
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Chloramines & Nitrogen Trichloride vs Stainless Steel [closed]
We've recently experienced excessive corrosion on stainless steel within indoor pool environments. We believe this is due to chloramine (gasses) in the atmosphere. To test this, I plan to create a ...
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Why the explosives get formed? [closed]
In many reactions mechanisms, we study things like 'it forms explosive mixture and should be discarded off immediately'.
Now my question is 'If those compounds are that much unstable that it will ...
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Why is prismane explosive but cubane is not?
So I was reading about polyhedral hydrocarbons, because I dig the topic, and I read (admittedly on wikipedia entries... But they cited papers, I swear!) that prismane is explosive due to the massive ...
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Why is black powder used in modern military munitions?
I was surprised to read in this recent WSJ article about a black powder shortage:
Today, [black powder] is a specialty commodity with few commercial applications—mostly for rocket hobbyists—but it’s ...
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Why do my slow burning fuses light off? [closed]
So recently II have been making a few times some slow burning fuses with: 34 g potassium nitrate, 26 g sugar, 60 g of water and some wool yarn. However when I light it up it burn a few seconds and ...
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Why is cyanuric triazide environmental friendly and less toxic?
This is the first line on Wikipedia:
Cyanuric triazide ($\ce{C3N12}$ or $\ce{(NCN3)3}$) is described as an environmentally friendly, low toxicity, and organic primary explosive with a detonation ...
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Why does Bachmann reaction differ in batch characteristics as opposed to flow characteristics
I have studied this reaction for over a year and it makes zero sense. When synthesizing HMX from Bachmann reaction, an important intermediate is DPT. DPT is formed by reaction of nitric and hexamine ...
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What is the flash point of acetylene?
On episode s10e11 of the show Criminal Minds, a confrontation occurs in a freezer full of acetylene gas. In this confrontation, the main character confidently fires her gun because the freezer was &...
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How to store ammonium perchlorate?
How should ammonium perchlorate (AP) be stored safely? The AP at PEPCON was stored in plastic and aluminium containers. I seem to remember that the very material of the storage containers (i.e. ...
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What role does ammonium play in the explosion of ammonium nitrate? [duplicate]
I read that ammonium is the "fuel" and nitrate is the "oxidizer". The nitrate oxidizes because it's a nitro group, but what's the mechanism of the ammonium?
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Constraints on pyrotechnic explosives that won't detonate spontaneously at 500 °C when landing on Venus?
The Space Exploration SE question Premature detonation of explosive bolts when landing on hot Venus? explains the need for and widespread use of pyrotechnic fasteners and cable cutters for Mars ...
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