Octanitrocuban - most powerful explosive?

[ProdigyChild]

I happened to find a mentions somewhere on the internet, that Octanitrocuban was the most powerful explosive today.
Its formula is (C-NO2)8. The molecule consists of 8 C atoms that are arranged in the corners of a cube and a nitro group attached to each. VOD of 10km/s

Few data is available by googling - mostly those I summarized above.
Any further information?

[grendel23]

A search on "octanitrocubane", note the "e" on the end, gives 6 hits on the forum and 540 hits on google.
Lots of info available.

[Jome skanish]

I dont think ONC has ever been prepared, only explosives with lower number of nitro-groups have been sucessfully added to cubane, eight has yet to come.

The extra power of this particular explosive comes from its "bond-angle energy", and it's been predicted to have a density of 2kg/dm3

[ProdigyChild]

As I thought fragments of words would also be found. Some got banned for not using the search functionality - what about those who can't use it the right way??
Now my nationality is also revealed, isn't it? :eek:

I can't kill that useless thread. If there's a mod who is willing to kill it - so do it.
Thanks.

[The_Rsert]

Look at this, maybe it will help:
http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/local/projects/b_muir/Cubane/Cubanepro/Intro.html

http://pxd.czechian.net/pxd.php?id=Nitrokubany
But the last Chechz, and I can't read Chechz...

[megalomania]

Octanitrocubane has been prepared, a few years ago now I think. It is not, however, the most powerful explosive. In theory it is, but the actual substance did not correspond to theory. Rather heptanitrocubane, the 7 nitro group precursor to octanitrocubane, is more powerful. This does not mean octanitrocubane is necessarily weaker, just that we have not found the densest crystal structure structure that theory predicts. Of course we may never find that crystal structure.

I believe the actual "most powerful" crown goes to a special crystalline form of silicon exposed to liquid oxygen. There is a thread about it on The Forum as one of our members was on the team that discovered this.

[Pietruszkin]

I don't think ONC is more powerful than DNAF.
Some time ago HNIW (polish piro amateur) write that he was reading about tests for the most powerful HE, and he write that DNAF was "better" than ONC.

[nuclearattack]

Surely there are a lot of exotic HEs but most of them are not very practise and usefull. What about nitrofullerene? It should be C60NO2, i have a document about the use of nitrofullerene as a propellant for SRB (solid rocket boosters), i don't know if it is more powerfull than octanitrocuban or HNIW but it is quite impossible to make in a homemade lab.
I don't remember where i downloaded this document, maybe on the patents list of roguesci, if someone is interested i can attach it to a post it is only 70 kb.
To Megalomania:
Do you refer to a silicon foam explosive? I opened a thread about it some months ago but i don't see a future for this explosive. However this is only an opinion maybe someone can see a good use for it.

[Pietruszkin]

if someone is interested i can attach it to a post it is only 70 kb

do it :) i'm interested in (i want write only do it, but message was too short :P)

[megalomania]

The silicon explosive will probably not be a useful commercial or military product because of the unusual manner in which it is detonated.

Ooh, a nitro fullerine would be a wonderful explosive! Lets see, C60(NO2)60 sounds pretty powerful. Fullerine itself is actually rather carcenogenic, but scientists have recently found that a few extra functional groups appended to the structure greatly reduce its cellular penetrating characteristics. Thus work on synthesizing functional group appended fullerines is heating up.

[Bugger]

Because C60 is completely unsaturated, with two C60 resonance structures, adding functional groups to it progressively destroys its aromatic nature, which provides some resistance to the process, similarly to the difficulty in making saturated compounds from benzene and planar condensed polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (in which it is much easier to replace the Hs). C60(NO2)60 would be completely saturated - but how to make it is problematic. Because NO2 is a free-radical compound (a toxic gas), it should be possible to obtain the nitro-compound simply by direct reaction with C60, possibly with pressure.

[nuclearattack]

As i promised i attached the file, i converted it in txt so it requires only 20 kb.
I hope you will find it interesting.
I preferred to don't write a lot about this nitrofullerine because i'm not very expert in high level chemistry so i don't want to write stupid things and i noticed that there are members more skilled than me so i will learn from them.

[nbk2000]

Or just post it as US Patent 5,341,639. :rolleyes:

[VasiaPupkin]

Some words about one of the most powerful explosive.
In 1983 in SU was synthesed one funny HE named "NTB".
Its a nitrotetrazole derrivative. Formula [NO2CN4C(NO2)2CH2]2NNO2.
Chemical name looks like bis-[2-(5'-nitrotetrazolyl-2')-2,2-dinitroethyl-]nitramine
Density 2.06g/cc, Hf=+296.8kcal/kg, Energy of explosion 1430kcal/kg. Detonation velocity
9.0km/s (1.78g/cc)-measured, 10.6km/s (2.06)- calculated. Impulse (throw ability)=113%HMX (DNAF=111%HMX)
This thing is stable below its melting point (65C).

Most valuable characteristic of ONC is that it combine good power with great thermal and chem. stability.
Because almost all extremelly powerful HE has poor thermal stability.

[hedm]

could you give me some more information about "NTB"?(article,patent ,etc...).
I made cyano,nitro,amino and hydrazine tetrazoles ( for safe primary explosives) and I could make this explosive.

[VasiaPupkin]

Mmm. Info about NTB was writing out from one "journal" by my friend.
I think its not open source.
I know only common scheme of synthesis:
1) K[NO2CN4C(NO2)2] + hexamine +Н(+) => [NO2CN4C(NO2)2CH2]2NH
2) [NO2CN4C(NO2)2CH2]2NH + HNO3/H2SO4 => NTB

[meselfs]

I'm surprised noone mentioned it (err, maybe it's obvious?), but cubane synthesis is a long, complicated process developed by Eaton 45 years ago. There's no chance that it would be remotely interesting to make Cubane; as for it's higher nitro compounds, just like Mega said they were made a few years ago (by the same Eaton guy).

I once saw the whole synthesis of cubane laid out. It was long, and the precursors were chemicals you wouldn't expect. I wonder if Eaton did it by trial and error...

[Microtek]

According to an interview with this Eaton character, he was approached by the military and asked to try to devise a synthesis for ONC.
So he knew what he was aiming for and needed a way to get there - Retrosynthesis !
The article said he developed some new methods of synthesis in the process, so there was probably quite a bit of trial and error ( and besides, look at the time frame; it has been in development for more than 40 years !! ).

[Mr Bump]

[QUOTE=Jome skanish] "I dont think ONC has ever been prepared, only explosives with lower number of nitro-groups have been sucessfully added to cubane, eight has yet to come"

Cubanes were first synthesized at the university of Chicago, USA by Eaton and Cole in 1964. The US army Armament research development centre (ARDEC) then funded the development into the formation of octanitrocubane (C8N8O16) and Heptanitrocubane (C8N7O14). ONC and HpNC were successfully synthesised in 1997 and 2000 respectively by Eaton and co-workers. HpNC is denser than ONC and predicted to be a more powerful shock-insensitive explosive.

Exerpt from 'The Chemsitry of Explosives' 2nd edition by J.Akhavan :)