I’m not a chemist, but used to read my copy of ‘chemistry of powders and explosives’ to get to sleep, and synthesized a few out of curiosity over the years. There are some real fun wiki holes in the topic too.
The azides do tend to be a bit unstable as well, same as the fulminates.
Most are still more stable than the organic peroxides, at least if they’re uncontaminated,
Energetics chemists tend to be the Leroy Jenkins of scientists.
In the analytical lab we had been using dinitrophenylhydrazine, in very low concentrations, in the determination of trace aldehydes. When the previous bottle was almost empty, I found out it could not be reordered from our established supplier. One chemist showed me how little there was left, he had been banging the bottle against the bench to get the last gram out. I was about in shock, apparently less so than the compound itself, and advised don't do that again because it's like a cross between TNT and rocket fuel.
Then found out the DNPH was no longer available in dry form, packed under water now under a different part number and with a revised SDS.
On the original topic of the thread, check out Chemical Forces video on boranes - [https://youtu.be/8hrYlhTYl5U?si=4SDJq4MxAEu714iY]
I’m not a chemist, but used to read my copy of ‘chemistry of powders and explosives’ to get to sleep, and synthesized a few out of curiosity over the years. There are some real fun wiki holes in the topic too.
The azides do tend to be a bit unstable as well, same as the fulminates.
Most are still more stable than the organic peroxides, at least if they’re uncontaminated,
Energetics chemists tend to be the Leroy Jenkins of scientists.
Lead(ii) azide has mostly been replaced by lead styphnate or other compounds in commercial use, safer to synthesize [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_styphnate]