• Question: What is the most explosive and dangerous substance, chemical in the world?

    Asked by 393xygg42 to Gavin, Mark, Roisin on 17 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Mark Kennedy

      Mark Kennedy answered on 17 Nov 2016:

      I think thermite? That stuff is insane.

      Of course, Uranium is incredibly dangerous on its own. When they were developing the nuclear bomb, a scientist accidentally let 2 large samples of Uranium touch each other. The resulting heat and radiation released killed him in a matter of seconds. (The samples of Uranium were called the Demon Core https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core )

    • Photo: Roisin Jones

      Roisin Jones answered on 17 Nov 2016:

      I’m not sure if it’s the most dangerous, but certainly pentaerythritol tetranitrate (or PETN) is one of the most explosive chemicals known, and is one of the ingredients used in Semtex (along with RDX, also a highly explosive substance)!

      Personally I think that some of the most dangerous chemicals in the world are actually toxic gases (of the non-explosive variety): they are easy to spread around because gases disperse so fast, very difficult to escape, because as long as there’s an airway to get into where you are, they can find a way in, and they can often be difficult to detect in advance, and often if you can smell it, it’s already too late, because the lungs are a highly effective entry route for toxic substances as they have a blood highway straight to the brain! Hydrogen cyanide, chlorine, and sarin (although actually a liquid often dispersed as a gas/aerosol) are some of the most deadly things to be produced in chemistry, among a long list of others.

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