Subscribe to RSS





Chemistry News

- Closed Captioning Videos: A way to create equal grounds to students with differences
ASSETT
- Is It Real?
Periodic Tabloid
- Real chemistry at the periodic table party
Sciencebase Science Blog
- my balls have finally dropped
Everyday Scientist
- APS Meeting: Quasicrystal adventures
The Sceptical Chymist
- Scientific shopping
Chemistry Blog
- More Blogroll
In the Pipeline
- Dietary Supplements, Charted
In the Pipeline
- The first class of Polymerization
It's a Blend of Science and Art
- Maximizing Codeine
Chemical & Engineering News: Latest News
- Theft at Eli Lilly
In the Pipeline

Nitrogen Triiodide Explosion [Photo]

by mitch on Jan 19 2009 (3164 Views)

A gorgeous photo of pressure sensitive nitrogen triiodide exploding at 1000 m/s is shown below.

NI3 Explosion
by vastibadastoy from flickr photostream

From vastib

The photo was taken in the dark with the camera’s shutter open, and a flash triggered by a pressure sensitive detector.

 

Apparently this was submitted as part of a manuscript to the Journal of Chemical Education for an undergraduate lab demo measuring how fast the explosion propagates through the material. Unfortunately, it was rejected as too dangerous.

The decomposition reaction is…

 8\text{NI}_3\text{NH}_3 \rightarrow 5\text{N}_2 + 6\text{NH}_4\text{I} + 9\text{I}_2

Chemical details on nitrogen triiodide can be found from the MOTM page contribution by Simon Cotton: Nitrogen Triiodide

Note 1: Yes, that is Latex embedded into the blog post.
Note 2: Originally from the Chemistry Reddit: Nitrogen Triiodide Photo

Mitch


Posted on : Jan 19 2009
Tags: , , ,
Posted under fun, general chemistry |



Google Ads





Recent Chemistry

Solid-State Molecular Rotors with Perdeuterated Stators: Mechanistic Insights from Biphenylene Rotational Dynamics in Ordered and Disordered Crystal Forms
(The Journal of Organic Chemistry)
ChemFeeds Nav: [Leave a Comment][See Related]

Good Chemistry Books


Organometallic and Coordination Clusters and Polymers

Cool Chemistry Concoctions: 50 Formulas that Fizz, Foam, Splatter & Ooze