[mirimir]

> In an explosion, however, the devilish little instigator that is oxygen shoves the process into overdrive.

It's a great article, and I know that I'm being pedantic, but chemical explosions need not involve oxygen. For example, consider acetylene and silver acetylide, with a carbon-carbon triple bond. Or lead azide, with a nitrogen-nitrogen triple bond.

[AmericanChopper]

> chemical explosions need not involve oxygen

They do need an oxidiser though. Which may or may not involve oxygen. You’re right of course, but redox itself has some poorly chosen jargon.

[mirimir]

> They do need an oxidiser though.

When lead azide detonates, you get elemental lead and diatomic nitrogen. So yes, the Pb++ oxidizes the azide.

When acetylene detonates, you get a mixture of organic compounds. But I don't believe that there's any redox involved. You just get various hydrocarbons with single and double carbon-carbon bonds. And just to be clear, this is when there's no oxidizing agent present.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

In chemistry, an oxidising agent (oxidant, oxidizer) is a substance that has the ability to oxidize other substances — in other words to accept their electrons. Common oxidizing agents are oxygen, hydrogen peroxide and the halogens.

The jargon being that an oxidiser is an substance that can accept electrons, and doesn't have to by oxygen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxidizing_agent

[qubex]

Just take oxidizer to me an “something that accepts electrons, like oxygen would”. Of course, there’s some oxidizers that can accept electrons from things that oxygen can’t (think of fluorine, for example) but... it’s just a term.

There’s also an enormous continuum of timescales, all the way from the detonation of high explosives, to deflagration of low explosives, combustion of fuels, to... sedate rusting, which is just oxidation of iron or steel. YMMV.

[mnw21cam]

I agree. I mean, there are loads of organic chemicals with plenty of oxygen in them, and they aren't explosive. What makes ammonium nitrate explosive isn't the oxygen in it, it's the nitrogen in it. The manufacturing process for ammonium nitrate involves using quite considerable amounts of energy to persuade nitrogen to get itself hitched to hydrogen and oxygen, but it would much rather be free as diatomic nitrogen, and when that happens you get that energy back.

[mirimir]

As I understand it, decomposition of ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) alone produces a mixture of ammonia (NH3), nitric acid (HNO3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and water (H2O). But if there's a reducing agent around, such as charcoal, coal or fuel oil, you'll get lots of diatomic nitrogen.