"Flash Ignition and Initiation of Explosives-Nanotubes Mixture"

Flash Ignition and Initiation of Explosives-Nanotubes Mixture
M. Riad Manaa et al
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 127 (40), 13786 -13787, 2005.


When you tell people you are a chemist, one of the common responses
(besides, "I hated chemistry in high school") is "Do you blow things
up?" I suspect that this paper will lead people to the same type of
response when you tell them you are a nanoscientist. As prepared
nanotubes, (with ~30% metal impurities), are in fact good explosives:
even the demonstration was comparable to the common ordanance
explosive RDX, and could in fact be improved. But what is perhaps
more interesting is that the explosion could be trigger with a flash
photography bulb, of an illumination of ~17 Watts per square
centimeter: normally light-triggering of explosives require lasers or
other high-intensity sources. As a result, this could lead to safer
and less-expensive explosive bolts for space (and other) applications.