Germans create environmentally friendly bomb

[Ender]

linka

New explosives could be more powerful and safer to handle than TNT and other conventional explosives and would also be more environmentally friendly.

TNT, RDX and other explosives commonly used in military and industrial applications often generate toxic gases upon detonation that pollute the environment. Moreover, the explosives themselves are toxic and can find their way into the environment due to incomplete detonation and as unexploded ordnance. They are also extremely dangerous to handle, as they are highly sensitive to physical shock, such as hard impacts and electric sparks.

To make safer, more environmentally friendly explosives, scientists in Germany turned to a recently explored class of materials called tetrazoles. These derive most of their explosive energy from nitrogen instead of carbon as TNT and others do.

Tiny bombs were made from two promising tetrazoles with the alphabet-soup names of HBT and G2ZT. These materials proved less apt to explode accidentally than conventional explosives.

After the bombs were detonated in the laboratory, G2ZT also proved as powerful than TNT, and HBT more powerful than TNT and comparable to RDX, said researcher Thomas Klapötke, a chemist at the University of Munich in Germany.

In initial experiments, G2ZT and HBT produced fewer toxic byproducts than common explosives. Still, they did generate some dangerous hydrogen cyanide gas. But mixing these compounds with oxidizers not only avoids making hydrogen cyanide, but also improved performance, Klapötke said.

These compounds have great potential, "especially for large caliber naval and tank guns," Klapötke added.

Klapötke and his colleague Carles Miró Sabate are scheduled to detail their findings in the June 24 issue of the journal Chemistry of Materials.

The research was financially supported by the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie, the European Research Office of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, the U.S. Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, and the Bundeswehr Research Institute for Materials, Explosives, Fuels and Lubricants.

I think they are kind of missing the point.

[Kanastrous]

Environmentally friendly warfare.

That's what we need.

[Colonel Olrik]

My God, that's so German.

[SirNitram]

Come on. Everyone whose played Call To Power knows that Ecotopia is the best late-game war government.

[Warsie]

I think they are kind of missing the point.

What is the point?

[Wanderer]

I think they are kind of missing the point.

What is the point?

To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you,

and to hear the lamentation of their women.

Thats the point.

[Maxentius]

Bombs in generally don't really let you hear lamentations, though. It's just kind of a low, whistling whine, followed by a muted curse that gets cutoff halfway by a defeaning explosion.

[Bounty]

Thats the point.

The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies and chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth and see those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses and clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters.

What's a Conan?

Anyway, as silly as the idea sounds, at the very least it should make handling and storing these explosives safer. There's still ammunition from the Great war rotting in the ground in Europe, and tonnes of it across Europe, Asia and the Americas from more recent conflicts; at least with these eco-friendly bombs, people won't run the risk of dying from slow poisoning years after the war has ended.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Come on. Everyone whose played Call To Power knows that Ecotopia is the best late-game war government.

Really? I always did corporate republic and nuked the crap out of everyone.