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IPFS News Link • Inventions

NANOBOMB CREATES MASSIVE EXPLOSION ON TINY SCALE

• http://www.popsci.com, By Kelsey D. Atherton

What the world needs most are more things that explode in more ways. A team of researchers from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, as well as one with Brazil's Federal University of São Paulo, sought the answer to a simple question: If they attached a compound known for its use in combustion to a dense carbon molecule, would the whole thing explode? Yes, it turns out. Why do this? Because they can, and because the field of nano-explosives is new, and it needs working tiny bombs before people can even start to figure out how to use them.

Starting from Buckminsterfullerene, a carbon molecule with a structure that resembles a geodesic sphere, their simulation attached a nitrous oxide molecule to the carbon base, and then let 'er rip, heating it virtually to 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit. They dubbed their result a 'buckybomb.'

In picoseconds, the molecule disintegrates into carbon parts and released gases, including more nitrous oxide to further fuel the explosion. Within 50 trillionths of a second the temperature goes from 1,300 degrees to 6,700 degrees Fahrenheit. That's hot enough to melt most metals.


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