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| Science & Technology |
| US Army Discovers New Explosive Material - "More Powerful Than TNT" |
| 2018-07-08 |
| Hopefully the ChiComs don't steal this formula for a few years... [Zero Hedge] - After more than a 100 years of dominance, new research from the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Army Research Laboratory have discovered a new, more powerful compound, Bis-oxadiazole (C6H4N6O8), which could render TNT obsolete. The molecular structure of Bis-oxadiazole. (Source: OPR&D) "It would be about 1.5 times the power of TNT," said David Chavez, an explosives chemist at Los Alamos who worked on the new molecule, who spoke with Popular Mechanics. "So fairly energetic, quite a nice improvement compared to TNT." Popular Mechanics first uncovered the report titled "Bis(1,2,4-oxadiazole) Bis(methylene) Dinitrate: A High-Energy Melt-Castable Explosive and Energetic Propellant Plasticizing Ingredient," which was published late last month in the Organic Process Research & Development, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Chemical Society. Chavez told Popular Mechanics that TNT is a blend of the seemingly harmless elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen (C7H5N3O6). However, he compares the explosive compounds to gasoline, indicating that rather than extracting oxygen from the air to work as an oxidizer for combustion, like an engine, the explosives have all the ingredients for a powerful explosion within the compound. Perfect for those bunker buster bombs - get on with it! |
| Posted by:Raj |
| #6 Mag, I'm one of the guys that used to pinch off a pea sized bit of C4, and stick it on the bottom of a canteen cup full of water, and light it to boil the water to make coffee. Everything is relative, in the long term we're all dead. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2018-07-08 15:20 |
| #5 sta·bil·i·ty. Lovely word that, particularly if you are sitting next to a case of it... |
| Posted by: magpie 2018-07-08 12:42 |
| #4 There's lots of explosives more powerful than TNT (trinitrotolulene). Have been for over a century. Nitroglyerine and Dynamite are examples. Military C4 is good 1/3 more powerful than TNT. What TNT is, is stable and easy to work with. (Look up the wiki page on 'TNT equivalent', and scroll down to 'relative effectiveness'. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2018-07-08 11:18 |
#3 seemingly harmless elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen *sigh* So is cyanide. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2018-07-08 10:39 |
| #2 ...well, there's other stuff 'laying around'. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2018-07-08 07:49 |
| #1 Hopefully the ChiComs don't steal this formula for a few years... Yeah. We'll just give it to them. Bis(1,2,4-oxadiazole)bis(methylene) Dinitrate: A High-Energy Melt-Castable Explosive and Energetic Propellant Plasticizing Ingredient |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2018-07-08 01:44 |