Click click bang bang
Banert et al. recently published the first synthesis of tetraazidomethane (and some of its "exciting chemistry"). Like it's cousin triazidomethane, this compound is highly reactive/explosive:
Safety Precautions: Tetraazidomethane (1) is extremely dangerous as a pure substance. It can explode at any time - without a recognizable cause. Less than a drop ... is able to destroy completely not only the glass trap but also the vacuum Dewar flask of the cooling bath.
It looks like it's a lot easier to make than octanitrocubane, so we'll just have to hope that there aren't any terrorists out there who subscribe to ACIE... (As an aside, I don't think there are any official policies for papers that contain explosive chemical reagents, but when it comes to biological papers that contain information that could be exploited by terrorists, many journals "have a policy in which editors will screen and, if necessary, reject manuscripts submitted for publication if 'an editor ... conclude(s) that the potential harm of publication outweighs the potential societal benefits.'")
Though this study sounds somewhat esoteric at first, when tetraazidomethane was reacted with norbornene, the authors isolated two unexpected 5-aminotetrazole derivatives (see Scheme 2). The authors haven't done a detailed mechanistic analysis yet, so a bit more work is needed to learn exactly what's going on - in the meantime, I think this would be a great question to test your students' (or friends') arrow-pushing skills...
Joshua
Joshua Finkelstein (Senior Editor, Nature)
Comments
Yeah, and as people have talked about on other blogs, academic chemistry labs do a horrible job in the security department. Any person on the street could put on a lab coat, walk into a chemistry department, and ask "to borrow" almost any chemical from any research lab without arousing suspicion.
And BTW, I just noticed the "Senior Editor" title. Congrats on the promotion.
Posted by: Paul | December 7, 2006 01:31 PM
Thanks Paul...
I certainly agree with you and the other bloggers, but I think that's true for some biological labs too - what's the point of locking radioactive compounds in a fridge if you leave the key in the lock or on the bench/drying rack nearby?
Joshua
P.S. Though I haven't posted any comments on ChemBark yet, I think the new site looks great! (I need to add it - and a number of other chemistry blogs - to our blogroll...)
Posted by: Joshua | December 7, 2006 03:10 PM
Mmmmm, sometimes it is the simplest stuff that people go after. We're always having ethanol stolen from tissue culture. Now, if they figured out where the drugs were kept we'd be in real trouble.
Posted by: Propter Doc | December 7, 2006 04:10 PM
Well, judging by the instability, one would *hope* that the terrorists try to make it. The world would be safer once someone is picking the shrapnel of the dewer out of their bodies.
Posted by: Michael Zappe | December 10, 2006 02:07 PM
I've heard that balances frequently get stolen from chemistry labs, presumably for weighing illicit drugs. I always thought it was strange that a drug dealer would want to weigh drugs to two or three significant figures.
Posted by: Beth Halford | December 10, 2006 09:34 PM