Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn’t it a ring shape?
No, it's almost linear with a small glitch in the center https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09032-9/figures/4
That's just 3 nitrogen molecules in a trench coat
Preparation of a neutral nitrogen allotrope hexanitrogen C2h-N6
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Re: Preparation of a neutral nitrogen allotrope hexanitrogen C2h-N6
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many nitrogens do we need to have a chemical primary for a fusion weapon?
I suspect you'd need about 0.013 M total, based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf#Deuterium_fusion
Looks like a very tiny lump of metallic nitrogen.
Eventually someone will make this.
Re: Preparation of a neutral nitrogen allotrope hexanitrogen C2h-N6
#23Note that "C2h" is the symmetry[1] and "N6" is the chemical formula. Yes, 6 Nitrogen in a line, N-N-N-N-N-N with some weird bounds and internal charges, probably a good candidate to "Things I Won't Work With" in https://www.science.org/blogs/pipeline From the article: > Detonation calculation details [1] See for example another molecule with a different shape but the same symmetry in https://www.cup.uni-muenchen.de/c…
Isn’t it a ring shape?
No, they only mentioned that hexanitrobenzene has too small dissociation energy computed, sadly.
Re: Preparation of a neutral nitrogen allotrope hexanitrogen C2h-N6
#24> Compounds consisting only of the element nitrogen [...] are considered promising clean energy-storage materials They are not actually serious about this, right? I feel if that directly acknowledging Klapötke of all people is basically a thinly veiled concession that watever you synthesized is too explosive to even be used as an explosive. As seems to be the case here. Is there even a remotely possibility for this t…
I mean... You could use it in space instead of nukes as a propellant. Probably would be safer to make there too.
Not useful otherwise yet unless there's some special synthesis requiring it that cannot be done in any other way.
Re: Preparation of a neutral nitrogen allotrope hexanitrogen C2h-N6
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect you'd need about 0.013 M total, based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf#Deuterium_fusion
Looks like a very tiny lump of metallic nitrogen. Eventually someone will make this.
Definitely not, the primer also needs to be somewhat stable.
This is one reason that even azides are not used in this capacity anymore, and metallic nitrogen would be orders of magnitude less stable. Not to mention requiring special conditions to not explode, like a laser trap or extreme pressures.
Re: Preparation of a neutral nitrogen allotrope hexanitrogen C2h-N6
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looks like a very tiny lump of metallic nitrogen. Eventually someone will make this.
Definitely not, the primer also needs to be somewhat stable. This is one reason that even azides are not used in this capacity anymore, and metallic nitrogen would be orders of magnitude less stable. Not to mention requiring special conditions to not explode, like a laser trap or extreme pressures.
Whatever the conditions, if attained, would lead to a virtually undetectable fusion bomb. Nukes for everyone, yay!
A visible amount of the thing wouldn’t even need the fission part.
Re: Preparation of a neutral nitrogen allotrope hexanitrogen C2h-N6
#27Re: Preparation of a neutral nitrogen allotrope hexanitrogen C2h-N6
#28> [Nitrogen compounds] are considered promising clean energy-storage materials owing to their immense energy content that is much higher than hydrogen, ammonia or hydrazine, which are in common use, and because they release only harmless nitrogen on decomposition. What the abstract mentions only sideways is that a key use of these properties is production of explosives - nitroglycerin, trinitrotoluene (TNT) or nitroc…
While it's true that most explosives use nitrogen-based compounds, only a vanishingly small amount of all nitrogen based compounds are used for military applications. Rough estimates are that about 85% goes to producing fertilizer, most of the rest is for various industrial applications and as a fuel. Relative to the scale of how much fertilizer humanity uses, there's just not all that much demand for explosives.
The fertilizer is also a very effective explosive used in mining and for some military purposes.
Lots of nitrogen molecules together almost always has a military use, even if it’s not the primary purpose.
Re: Preparation of a neutral nitrogen allotrope hexanitrogen C2h-N6
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it's almost linear with a small glitch in the center https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09032-9/figures/4
That's just 3 nitrogen molecules in a trench coat
I know it's a joke, but recently a coworker showed us a preprint about theoretical calculations of long strings of nitrogen. They are very unestable and almost immediately they split into a bunch of N2 molecules. So "just 3 nitrogen molecules in a trench coat" is a good characterization of the situation.
Re: Preparation of a neutral nitrogen allotrope hexanitrogen C2h-N6
#30Note that "C2h" is the symmetry[1] and "N6" is the chemical formula. Yes, 6 Nitrogen in a line, N-N-N-N-N-N with some weird bounds and internal charges, probably a good candidate to "Things I Won't Work With" in https://www.science.org/blogs/pipeline From the article: > Detonation calculation details [1] See for example another molecule with a different shape but the same symmetry in https://www.cup.uni-muenchen.de/c…
Derek Lowe of "Things I Won't Work With" weighs in: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/hexanitrogen