# Which explosive is the most powerful? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 20, 2016, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903 "2016-06-20T18:03:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![blood63](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@blood63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blood63)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/1 "2016-06-20T18:03:34Z")
Which explosive releases the most energy per gram? Also, what process put the chemical energy into the explosive? I am assuming that vast amounts of electrical energy are used to create these explosives. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/2 "2016-06-20T18:14:03Z")
Octanitrocubane is one badmutha-shut your mouth! explosive. It’s about twice as dense as TNT. [TNT equivalent - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_effectiveness_factor) It’s still basically experimental, and very hard to produce, so I don’t know if the process of synthesis involves putting electrodes into a chemical compound to pump electricity into it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/3 "2016-06-20T18:19:14Z")
> [@blood63](#): > > Also, what process put the chemical energy into the explosive? I am assuming that vast amounts of electrical energy are used to create these explosives. I’m not sure what you’re imagining but I don’t think it resembles the actual process. Developing an explosive basically consists of finding a combination of chemicals that would cause the right reaction when they’re mixed together. You want a reaction that releases a lot of energy really quickly but at the same time you want to have something that prevents the reaction from occurring on its own. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/4 "2016-06-20T18:23:07Z")
I’d expect something that mixes hydrogen and fluorine/oxygen/nitrogen. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/5 "2016-06-20T18:34:22Z")
Nitroglycerine, for example, is based on this chemical reaction: 4 C[sub]3[/sub]H[sub]5/sub[sub]3[/sub] \> 12 CO[sub]2/sub + 10 H[sub]2[/sub]O(g) + 6 N[sub]2/sub + O[sub]2/sub What this is are molecules of nitroglycerin (C[sub]3[/sub]H[sub]5/sub[sub]3[/sub]) turning into carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen, and oxygen. The rearranging of the chemical bonds that this change reflects releases a lot of energy. What controls the reaction is that it doesn’t occur spontaneously. A lump\* of nitroglycerin won’t change into carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen, and oxygen on its own. It needs some energy to get the reaction started. The practical problem with nitroglycerin is that the amount of energy needed is pretty small. You can drop a piece of nitroglycerin on the floor and the impact will give it enough energy to initiate the reaction. Generally speaking, you want an explosive where the reaction doesn’t initiate that easily so you have better control of it. \*It’s not really a lump. Nitroglycerin is a liquid. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/6 "2016-06-20T18:41:45Z")
From [Neutronium Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutronium#Properties): > [@](#): > > A teaspoon of degenerate neutronium gas would have a mass of two billion tons, and if moved to standard temperature and pressure, would emit 57 billion joules of β− decay energy in the first half-life of 10 minutes 11 seconds (average of 95 MW of power). Big boom there. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/7 "2016-06-20T18:46:13Z")
Most of Derek Lowe’s [Things I Won’t Work With](http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/things-i-wont-work-with) fall under this category. ---
**Author:** ![blood63](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@blood63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blood63)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/8 "2016-06-20T18:48:55Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Nitroglycerine, for example, is based on this chemical reaction: 4 C[sub]3[/sub]H[sub]5/sub[sub]3[/sub] \> 12 CO[sub]2/sub + 10 H[sub]2[/sub]O(g) + 6 N[sub]2/sub + O[sub]2/sub > > What this is are molecules of nitroglycerin (C[sub]3[/sub]H[sub]5/sub[sub]3[/sub]) turning into carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen, and oxygen. The rearranging of the chemical bonds that this change reflects releases a lot of energy. > > What controls the reaction is that it doesn’t occur spontaneously. A lump\* of nitroglycerin won’t change into carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen, and oxygen on its own. It needs some energy to get the reaction started. The practical problem with nitroglycerin is that the amount of energy needed is pretty small. You can drop a piece of nitroglycerin on the floor and the impact will give it enough energy to initiate the reaction. Generally speaking, you want an explosive where the reaction doesn’t initiate that easily so you have better control of it. > > \*It’s not really a lump. Nitroglycerin is a liquid. I’ll take this as a good example of what I am looking for with regards to energy. The material you mention here, carbon dioxide, water etc are low energy molecules yet in the process of making the explosive, a lot of energy must be put into it. What is the source? It is clearly an endothermic reaction. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/9 "2016-06-20T19:01:57Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > I’d expect something that mixes hydrogen and fluorine/oxygen/nitrogen. There’s a chemical compound called dioxygen difluoride, or O[sub]2[/sub]F[sub]2[/sub]. As Wikipedia says: > [@](#): > > Dioxygen difluoride reacts vigorously with nearly every chemical it encounters – even ordinary ice – leading to its onomatopoeic nickname “FOOF” (a play on its chemical structure and its explosive tendencies). It’s a bit too reactive to use as a chemical explosive though. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/10 "2016-06-20T19:08:53Z")
> [@blood63](#): > > I’ll take this as a good example of what I am looking for with regards to energy. The material you mention here, carbon dioxide, water etc are low energy molecules yet in the process of making the explosive, a lot of energy must be put into it. What is the source? It is clearly an endothermic reaction. I had to look it up, but this is how nitroglycerin is made: > [@](#): > > Nitrogylcerin is made by adding glycerol, a simple hydrocarbon with three hydroxyl groups, to a mixture of sulfuric acid and nitric acid. From here: [http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2012/06/industrial-nitroglycerin-made-fast-and-safe](http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2012/06/industrial-nitroglycerin-made-fast-and-safe) The article goes on to say that this is a very exothermic reaction, and if the temperature gets too high it can runaway and explode. In traditional nitroglycerin manufacturing, they add the glycerol slowly to the acid to give it time to dissipate the heat. The article goes on to talk about using microreactors and continuous batch processing to safely increase production, which probably isn’t of interest to this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/11 "2016-06-20T19:08:57Z")
> [@blood63](#): > > I’ll take this as a good example of what I am looking for with regards to energy. The material you mention here, carbon dioxide, water etc are low energy molecules yet in the process of making the explosive, a lot of energy must be put into it. What is the source? It is clearly an endothermic reaction. With nitroglycerin, yes, you’re going to have to spend some energy to produce the compound; nitroglycerin is not a naturally occurring substance. But you can make explosives without energy. Gunpowder is a good example. You mix sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter and you’ve got an explosive. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/12 "2016-06-20T19:19:15Z")
\*\*BrotherCadfael \*\*beat me to the punch re that terrific blog. I paraphrase the author regarding some god-awful substance or another: “It’s never a good idea to pack that many Nitrogen atoms into so small a molecule when they all want desperately to be someplace else.” ---
**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/13 "2016-06-20T19:20:22Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > > [@wiki](#): > > > > A teaspoon of degenerate neutronium gas would have a mass of two billion tons, and if moved to standard temperature and pressure, would emit 57 billion joules of β− decay energy in the first half-life of 10 minutes 11 seconds (average of 95 MW of power). That average power is way off. I calculate 10[sup]23[/sup] watts of power for two billion tons of neutrons. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/14 "2016-06-20T19:48:25Z")
A good reference for military explosives is TM 9-1300-214; pdf here - [TM 9-1300-214 CHG-4 MILITARY EXPLOSIVES](http://everyspec.com/ARMY/TM-Tech-Manual/TM_9-1300-214_9344/) From Derek Lowe’s blogs - nitrogen atoms (singular) glued on to compounds really, really, really want to recombine as N2. Very exothermic. He describes one compound stable for a few hours (minutes?) as titanium with 12 individual nitrogen atoms bonded to the single titanium atom. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/15 "2016-06-20T19:51:44Z")
HMX is the most powerful in common use. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/16 "2016-06-20T19:56:36Z")
Add to above reference to Lowe’s - [http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2011/11/11/things\_i\_wont\_work\_with\_hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane](http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2011/11/11/things_i_wont_work_with_hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane) " Hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane … There’s a recent report of a method to make a more stable form of it, by mixing it with TNT. Yes, this is an example of something that becomes less explosive as a one-to-one cocrystal with TNT. Although, as the authors point out, if you heat those crystals up the two components separate out, and you’re left with crystals of pure CL-20 soaking in liquid TNT, a situation that will heighten your awareness of the fleeting nature of life." ---
**Author:** ![obbn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d6d6ee/32.png) [@obbn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obbn)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/17 "2016-06-20T20:05:57Z")
That would be my wife’s temper! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/18 "2016-06-20T20:29:10Z")
Derek Lowe is awesome. > [@](#): > > "I’d call for all the chemists who’ve ever worked with a hexanitro compound to raise their hands, but that might be assuming too much about the limb-to-chemist ratio. " > [@](#): > > "To add to the fun, the X-ray crystal structure shows some rather strange bond distances, which indicate that there’s a lot of charge separation – the azides are somewhat positive, and the tetrazole ring somewhat negative, which is a further sign that the whole thing is trembling on the verge of not existing at all. > > And if you are minded to make some yourself, then \*you \*are on the verge of not existing at all, either. " ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/19 "2016-06-21T00:41:55Z")
A good high explosive is a molecule that has a mix of atoms that can be rearranged into a whole lot of very simple gaseous molecules perfectly (H[sub]2[/sub]O, CO[sub]2[/sub],N[sub]2[/sub] or various oxides of Nitrogen. This molecule should also have twisted or stretched chemical bonds that are exposed in some way, and that when released cause the molecule to move against it’s neighbour, imparting energy as well as the expanding cloud of gas molecules. **Boom** If you tried to create these molecules from the resultant gases, it would take a massive amount of energy. But you don’t. You start with a feedstock that has most of the requirements - benzene, maybe - a typical hydrocarbon already in a ring. It will burn, in oxygen, and slowly (compared to an explosive). Toss on some additional oxygen with shortchain carbon/hydroxy/alkoxy groups. Now it will burn without oxygen, but still probably too slowly for an explosive. You then add some nitrogen groups with hot fuming nitric acid and sulphuric acid, and use a catalyst to make it all twisty and stressed. This can now explode. Then you try to stabilise it and extract it. You have added a bit of heat, and added/removed some electrons, but most of the energy was already there. But you now have a self-disassembling molecule, and all that energy will just now be released very, very fast into a cloud of rapidly expanding hot gas. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903/20 "2016-06-21T02:46:03Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Octanitrocubane is one badmutha-shut your mouth! explosive… 🙂 Great adjective. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-explosive-is-the-most-powerful/757903.md?page=2)