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Molecules: You'd better learn to live with them.
Category: Explosives
Potassium chlorate, KClO3, is quite oxygen-dense and a potent oxidant. It is used in what we called "whippersnappers" and the suppliers called "Pop-Pops" as kids, along with silver fulminate. There is a singular irony in that the wimpiest firework, the...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 11:10 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Explosives
Hexamine is a nitrogenous analogue of adamantane....
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:00 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Explosives
Benzoyl peroxide is funny. As a commenter mentioned yesterday, it's used in skin care....
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 11:29 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Explosives
As a commenter surmised in my entry on phosphine, I really like Breaking Bad. The main character is a chemist, and the writers have done a good job of working a lot of chemical tidbits into the mix (even ones...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 11:31 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Explosives
A lot of science-fiction writers have spent a lot of time and energy hypothesizing silicon-based life. This isn't completely insane - if you go down a column of the periodic table, stuff tends to be the same. Fluorine, chlorine, bromine,...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 11:56 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Explosives
Ethylene glycol dinitrate is simply the dinitrate ester of ethylene glycol - putting glycol under the same reaction conditions that yield the primitive nitro explosives, like nitroglycerin or TNT, yields this compound. Why's it important? It has a decent vapor...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 9:53 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Explosives
Picric acid is a simple enough organic acid - its nitro groups withdraw electrons, making it a pretty strong acid for a phenol. However, it's got a slightly darker side: it's to TNT what phenol is to toluene. Those nitroes...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 7:29 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Explosives
I love old bottles of chemicals, and I've spent many a diverting hour perusing the shelves of old university faculty members' labs. Bottles used to come in pounds (or giant "ONE MOLE" sizes). Faded typewritten text, "For medical, pharmaceutical compounding,...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 8:50 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Explosives
I was a little uneasy about writing about this one, since I was worried someone would try and make it. The image for this entry actually went through a few iterations, first, with a detailed explanation of the mechanism. Then,...
Posted by Molecule of the Day at 12:05 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
