Nitrogen Triiodide (2016)
fourmilab.ch
Nitrogen Triiodide (2016)
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Re: Nitrogen Triiodide (2016)
#2Also notable this article is by John Walker, co-founder of Autodesk, who passed last year.
Re: Nitrogen Triiodide (2016)
#3[deleted]
Re: Nitrogen Triiodide (2016)
#4[dead]
Re: Nitrogen Triiodide (2016)
#5I made this in high school, shortly after my AP Chemistry exam in 1992. I left it out to dry under the fume hood, and my teacher, not knowing what it was, moved it and BOOM! Fun times.
Re: Nitrogen Triiodide (2016)
#6A fun thing to make. I made this in the high school chemistry room after school. Filter paper with some iodine crystals, pour some ammonia over and wait for it to dry (as I recall). I am not sure where I learned about it. Often my dad, who was a chemist then, would tell me little tricks like this. (He also turn me on to slathering a small amount of potassium permanganate with glycerin.)
Anyway, I was walking with it after I made it (when it was still damp and in the filter paper) and I accidentally dropped the filter paper in the school hallway. I picked up what I could (I suppose I should have gone back and mopped it up).
It was fun, the small explosions, like tap shoes clacking, when it was dry and walked upon. (Too bad it left brown stains on the linoleum.)
I was fortunate to have not had a large quantity dry. It can be pretty dangerous in large amounts I am told.
Re: Nitrogen Triiodide (2016)
#7Oh wow! Growing up my chemical engineer uncle would come out on the Fourth of July and dump a bucket of stuff on the road in front of his house. A while later when it was dried he'd have us roller blade and skate board down the road to setup all the little explosions. It was a total blast. He refused to tell anyone what the compound was, but assured us it could be easily made. It has to be this stuff.
Re: Nitrogen Triiodide (2016)
#8A fun thing to make. I made this in the high school chemistry room after school. Filter paper with some iodine crystals, pour some ammonia over and wait for it to dry (as I recall). I am not sure where I learned about it. Often my dad, who was a chemist then, would tell me little tricks like this. (He also turn me on to slathering a small amount of potassium permanganate with glycerin.) Anyway, I was walking with it…
I've always heard that the incredibly sensitive volatility of this compound precludes the ability to even amass it in large quantities, because it will essentially fulminate under its own weight.
Re: Nitrogen Triiodide (2016)
#9> There is no risk of terrorists using NI3 because anybody who made it in sufficient quantities to do serious damage would succeed only in blowing themselves up: those who do so are humorous, not terrible.
...not gonna say more, but, buried in the info and video there IS actually an idea for overcoming this nasty limitation (if you can mostly live up with "quasi-random detonation time", which could be acceptable for _some_ nefarious uses). Tbh I'd be more curious if any current gen LLM can figure it out.
Re: Nitrogen Triiodide (2016)
#10> There is no risk of terrorists using NI3 because anybody who made it in sufficient quantities to do serious damage would succeed only in blowing themselves up: those who do so are humorous, not terrible. ...not gonna say more, but, buried in the info and video there IS actually an idea for overcoming this nasty limitation (if you can mostly live up with "quasi-random detonation time", which could be acceptable for…
Even if you were okay with all of that, there's still better compounds to use as weapons. It's just not a good one at _all_.
It _is_ still dangerous though. A lot of people/writeups discount the danger. You really want to use ear/eye protection, do it outside, and try to avoid glass for the final steps to reduce the shrapnel risk.
And it's probably obvious, but: it's not a good prank. You can really fuck up someone's ears or worse.