Metacelsus
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Location: Boston, MA
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Hexanitrogen
Recently preparation of N6 was reported by reacting silver azide with chlorine or bromine. It's stable at liquid nitrogen temperatures.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09032-9
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/hexanitrogen
According to Derek Lowe:
"I am informed by people who are in a position to know that this molecule has been seen in classified military research (in the US and likely in
another country or two as well) for some years now, and used as an intermediate to prepare other high-energy compounds. That’s the limit of my
knowledge, but I find that claim plausible, given the motivations and experience of the high-energy-compound community. It is apparently considered to
have no applications other than as such an intermediate; it’s obviously too unstable for any other use. Again, I’m not in a position to comment on
this, and even if it’s true the current discoverers (at Justus Liebig University in Giessen) deserve all the scientific credit."
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Fulmen
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Wow. Just.... wow. I wouldn't be surprised if you can set it off just by thinking about it.
We're not banging rocks together here. We know how to put a man back together.
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Radiums Lab
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Yea someone from SM is going to synthesize it soon.
Water is dangerous if you don't know how to handle it, elemental fluorine (F₂) on the other hand is pretty tame if you know what you are doing.
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Fulmen
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Yeah. Tom needs to wrap up that silly cubane project and get on this asap. I can't wait to see the headlines:
"Large part of Australia gone after youtube experiment goes horribly wrong".
We're not banging rocks together here. We know how to put a man back together.
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Microtek
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Well, unlike the highly nitrated cubanes, this doesn't seem too difficult to make (though I don't think I will be doing it; it seems too unstable for
my tastes).
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Tdep
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Quote: Originally posted by Fulmen  | Yeah. Tom needs to wrap up that silly cubane project and get on this asap. I can't wait to see the headlines:
"Large part of Australia gone after youtube experiment goes horribly wrong". |
I really like the idea of doing a synthesis of this N6, it does feel achievable. But my issue is-- how do you define 'success' with this experiment?
Especially in context of a Youtube video. Will I be able to make enough to see on camera? Would simply making a window foggy with a layer of deposited
material be enough evidence for people?? Even if I got some sort of FTIR system and saw the same evidence that the paper did, the general audience
will want to see it blow up, and I don't know if its possible to do that, as it would require enough mass to blow up and enough sudden stimulus to
'explode' rather than just slowly decompose (for example on removing it from the liquid nitrogen).
Perhaps a laser? There are likely solutions to all this, just requires some thinking
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MineMan
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Derek mentioned that this was used as a step for another compound… one that would have to be more stable. The only thing I can think of is
complexing it with metal ions to increase stability… does anyone else have any other ideas?
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