He has shown that scaling up the process by a factor of 10 should yield around 40 kilos of product annually, which he suggests would be enough for a global supply of some products. Thomas M. Piercey, Inorg. Palde and Timothy F. Jamison, Angew. Edn , , DOI: One chemistry professor received three months for producing the drug in a university lab, while another was acquitted.
Site powered by Webvision Cloud. Skip to main content Skip to navigation. The new compound shattered glassware around the lab. References Thomas M. No comments yet. Rent this article via DeepDyve. Google Scholar. Book Google Scholar. Article Google Scholar. Download references. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar.
Correspondence to Dheeraj Kumar or Anil J. Anil J. Reprints and Permissions. Kumar, D. The Explosive Chemistry of Nitrogen.
But ammonium nitrate? What is it about this simple inorganic compound that can cause it to react so violently? As you probably guessed, the answer is in the chemistry. All explosions share some features. They all involve the rapid and violent release of large amounts of energy from a confined region of space. Particularly true for chemical explosions, they often involve the rapid expansion of gases generated during the explosion itself.
Chemical explosions like those in Texas City and Oklahoma City are accompanied by a loud sharp report, flying debris, heat, light, and fire. An explosive is a chemical compound or mixture that does the job.
The explosive decomposition of nitroglycerin illustrates several features common to explosions:. First, the reaction is exothermic, meaning that it releases energy. Second, it produces several gaseous products, all of which expand as the released energy raises the temperature. Finally, the reactants include the element nitrogen. Why do so many explosives contain the element nitrogen? The irony is that nitrogen gas is a very stable compound at a very low energy state.
But when it is formed from reactants that start out in a very high energy state, a very large amount of energy is released in the process. Why do explosive compounds react so rapidly? One way to speed up a reaction is to thoroughly mix the reactants. Mixing allows for immediate contact to occur.
You may have read about explosions in flour mills and grain elevators. Even otherwise harmless substances like flour can explode violently if thoroughly mixed with air and ignited by a spark.
Molecules of explosive compounds like nitroglycerin or trinitrotoluene take the mixing step one step further. For these compounds all of the reactants are on board the same molecule. Immediate contact is assured. What caused the ammonium nitrate in the holds of the ship to explode without the use of some other explosive? Chemists found that the answer was in the bag. The ammonium nitrate fertilizer was packaged in plain paper. The cellulose used to make paper contains a large amount of the element carbon.
It was the carbon and ammonium nitrate mixture that reacted to unleash the tragic explosion. By analyzing the circumstances surrounding the Texas tragedy, chemists began to appreciate the power and potential of ammonium nitrate-based explosives.
0コメント