"but it has to do
with the temperature and pressure getting high enough that the NO2 starts
to break down, releasing O2 which reacts with the NH4."

Yeah, sort of an abrupt dissassociation; and that free O2 reacts with
everything around it.

Bob Swinney.


"Jim McGill" wrote in message
...
Triethyl Borane is also pyrophoric which means it spontaneously catches
fire on contact with air (it will even catch fire on contact with dry N2
which says something). Borane compounds are definitely not something you
want to be around. Old boron chemists all have a Parkinson like palsy that
is caused by the boron they've breathed screwing up their motor neurons.
I'm not surprised it would kick start a Blackbird engine. Two puffs of it
would probably blow the engine off the wing.

Most old time explosives like TNT and Nitroglycerine were found by chance
but these days chemists have a pretty good handle on what is needed to
cause an explosion (like an internal oxidizer on the same molecule as the
fuel) and have developed whole families of explosives / solid rocket fuels
(same stuff, just a rocket has a vent on it) with very tightly controlled
characteristics.

There are still surprises, though. I've heard that Triacetone Triperoxide
(TATP), beloved of terrorists because it's high energy, easy to make and
hard to detect, was originally discovered by a guy that was working on
developing industrial epoxies. Glad I wasn't in the lab when they tested
that.

By the way, I think Ammonium Nitrate (NH4NO2) explosions are pretty well
understood these days. I don't remember the details, Jim