Buckybombs ahoy!

[Phyphor]

God, I love living in the future.

http://phys.org/news/2015-03-buckybomb-potential-power-nanoscale-explosives.html

(Phys.org)—Scientists have simulated the explosion of a modified buckminsterfullerene molecule (C60), better known as a buckyball, and shown that the reaction produces a tremendous increase in temperature and pressure within a fraction of a second. The nanoscale explosive, which the scientists nickname a "buckybomb," belongs to the emerging field of high-energy nanomaterials that could have a variety of military and industrial applications.
The researchers, Vitaly V. Chaban, Eudes Eterno Fileti, and Oleg V. Prezhdo at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, have published a paper on the simulated buckybomb explosion in a recent issue of The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. Chaban is also with the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil.
The buckybomb combines the unique properties of two classes of materials: carbon structures and energetic nanomaterials. Carbon materials such as C60 can be chemically modified fairly easily to change their properties. Meanwhile, NO2 groups are known to contribute to detonation and combustion processes because they are a major source of oxygen. So, the scientists wondered what would happen if NO2 groups were attached to C60 molecules: would the whole thing explode? And how?
The simulations answered these questions by revealing the explosion in step-by-step detail. Starting with an intact buckybomb (technically called dodecanitrofullerene, or C60(NO2)12), the researchers raised the simulated temperature to 1000 K (700 °C). Within a picosecond (10-12 second), the NO2 groups begin to isomerize, rearranging their atoms and forming new groups with some of the carbon atoms from the C60. As a few more picoseconds pass, the C60 structure loses some of its electrons, which interferes with the bonds that hold it together, and, in a flash, the large molecule disintegrates into many tiny pieces of diatomic carbon (C2). What's left is a mixture of gases including CO2, NO2, and N2, as well as C2.
Although this reaction requires an initial heat input to get going, once it's going it releases an enormous amount of heat for its size. Within the first picosecond, the temperature increases from 1000 to 2500 K. But at this point the molecule is unstable, so additional reactions over the next 50 picoseconds raise the temperature to 4000 K. At this temperature, the pressure can reach as high as 1200 MPa (more than 10,000 times normal atmospheric pressure), depending on the density of the material.

More at the link.

[vaskidmark]

Bigger bada-boom!

stay safe.

[TommyGunn]

Yeee Gawds .... precursor to a Genesis Device? 

[Devonai]

I'm imagining a new high explosive that's totally safe without a specific detonator, or a rocket fuel that won't potentially blow up the entire factory and the nearby town.

[Hutch]

In Ringo's Legacy of the Aldenata series, there are shoulder weapons that fire tiny self contained cartridges that send very small projos to a significant fraction of c.  The propellant is a teensy-bitty dollop of antimatter.  I wonder if a buckybomb of an appropriate size could be used as such a propellant.  The grav-guns, as they were called, were pure death on the Posleen.

[AJ Dual]

In Ringo's Legacy of the Aldenata series, there are shoulder weapons that fire tiny self contained cartridges that send very small projos to a significant fraction of c.  The propellant is a teensy-bitty dollop of antimatter.  I wonder if a buckybomb of an appropriate size could be used as such a propellant.  The grav-guns, as they were called, were pure death on the Posleen.

Problem there is anything microscopic, or macroscopic moving even an appreciable fraction of c in atmosphere will set up some nasty effects, mainly a big burst of gamma and/or x-rays from fusion that heat the surrounding air causing it to expand pretty much in the way a nuclear bomb blast explodes outward from the x-rays making superheated air plasma. And it's moving fastest when fired. Unhealthy for everyone, power armor or not.

Granted, this is a baseball, and 90% of c...  https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/

The Grav Guns were a neat idea, I think Ringo was trying to go for something that was unobtanium high-tech, but was also grounded in reality in some way by not being a "ray gun" by firing a projectile. 

[Northwoods]

Eh, call me back when it's real, not just a simulation.

[CypherNinja]

Meh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octanitrocubane

My understanding is that synthesizing this stuff currently requires 27 discrete steps, 3 of which are no joke. If anyone ever figures out a better process......