CONTACT:
Clifford J. Steer, Ph.D.
University of Minnesota Medical School
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
Phone: 612-624-6648
Fax: 612-625-5620
Email: steer001@umn.edu
ARTICLE #2 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A new explosive proves unusually touchy
Journal of the American Chemical Society
The first systematic study of a new group of explosives has concluded that the materials are so shock sensitive apt to detonate if struck or heated that the legendarily touchy nitroglycerin seems a pillar of stability by comparison. Conducted by Thomas M. Klaptke and colleagues in Germany, the study is scheduled for the May 30 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, a weekly publication.
In the study, researchers focus on newly developed chemical analogues, or variants, of two common high explosives in which carbon atoms have been replaced by atoms of silicon, the element in ordinary beach sand. Because of the extreme sensitivity of the compounds, which the researchers did not expect, only a limited number of tests could be performed before samples exploded.
A sample of one compound, for instance, exploded when touched gently with a small plastic laboratory spatula. Another sample exploded under a microscope. Measurements showed that the silicon analogue was more than 3 times more sensitive to impact than the parent compound. The report states that the compound is "one of the most dangerous materials, and tends to explode on the slightest impact."
ARTICLE #2 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"The Sila-Explosives Si(CH2N3)4 and Si(CH2ONO2)4: Silicon Analogues of the Common Explosives Pentaerythrityl Tetr
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Contact: Michael Woods
m_woods@acs.org
202-872-4400
American Chemical Society
4-Jun-2007