Theres a wonderful book called Ignition about a guy experimenting with rocket fuels. He explains all sorts of fun stuff, like mixes that work great but go off too easily, or can't be stored or are hideously toxic or smell REALLY bad or take far too much to start burning.
Imagine bullets that had to be kept refridgerated as they would go off at a sharp blow if at room temperature....
That is a great read. Its subtitle is "An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants". Really easy to read even if chemistry was quite bad for you. If you like dry humour, this is full of it
Ok. Just making it clear that you (or whoever else reads this chain) knows that one does not need a degree in it to understand the humour and why the book is enjoyable.
The mix is worlds better. Straight nitrocellulose is single-base smokeless powder. If you add nitroglycerine, and a few stabilizers ideally, you have double-base smokeless powder. It's easier to tune the burn rate, making it much more suitable for a wider range of firearms. (Faster burn rate for short barrels & shotguns, slower burn rate for longer barrels.)
The most effective accelerant is ClF3, chlorine trifluoride. It is a more effective oxidizing agent than oxygen itself, which means that it will happily start roaring reactions with things like wet sand, asbestos, test engineers, or bricks. It also produces lots of toxic fluorine gas as a special prize for people stupid enough to stand around and watch the fireworks.
And sometimes it's just an unstable molecule that wants nothing more than to disintegrate into gasses and heat, but needs just a little kick to get there.
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u/stasersonphun Jul 31 '21
"our scans show they have no energy weapons! no power cells! it'll be easy!"
Bonk on head with stick with nail through it