From: arno@utu.fi (Arno Hahma)
Newsgroups: alt.engr.explosives
Subject: Re: Hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane
Date: 15 Dec 1998 09:11:31 GMT

In article <3674467e.6577001@news.western.wave.ca>,
Lindsay Hayden Greene <herbl@western.wave.ca> wrote:


>hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane. As many of the chemists out there know,
>all that is nessesary for a person to devise syntheses for a substance
>is to have the compound's chemical name.

Well, yes, in theory. If you can tell a _working_ synthetic route for
this one directly from the formula or name, I am truly impressed!

>	I have been working frantically at my chem "lab" to think up a
>viable method of synthesis, but so far I have failed.

Somehow, I am not surprised :-). It took me about three months to
get that molecule synthetized, since I first heard its structure.

>hexanitrohexaazaisowurzitane, like its detonation velocity, or
>stability (relative to TNT)?

Vdet is approximately 10000 m/s as pure substance, about 9500 m/s as a
plastic bonded composition. Density is about 2,1 g/cm3. Stability is
about equal to that of octogen, which is better than TNT. Of course,
that only applies, if you have the right polymorphic form - there are
at least 8 different forms and each has different sensitivity, density,
performance etc.

>	It looks like Thiokol has hit upon one of the members of the
>next generation of high explosives.

I think the HNIW is just an extension to the family of polynitramines -
it is a homologue to hexogen and octogen. The next generation
explosives are compounds such as N4 and N8. So far, nobody knows a
synthetic route for them, though. The closest ones to them is probably
ammonium dinitramide (NH4N(NO2)2) and ammonium azide.

>          Lindsay G.

ArNO
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