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Comment by mabbo | Hacker News Reader

As someone who dropped chemistry in grade 11- what makes Nitrogen so exciting like that?

So many common explosive compounds seem to have it.

Nitrogen-Nitrogen bonds inside larger molecules are never quite stable because 1) nitrogen “wants” to form stable di-nitrogen (N2) molecules containing a very stable triple bond (an exothermic reaction) and 2) the result of such decompositions is nitrogen gas increasing the amount of entropy released (due to more molecules being created).

Reactions are driven both by the amount of heat released (enthalpy) and the amount of “disorder” created (entropy). Explosive reactions tend to be the ones where both factors add to the driving force.

Does the same apply to oxygen? Since it also likes to be in a diatomic form.

The opposite, or oxygen wouldn't be such a strong oxidiser, which implies it readily and energetically leaves its double bond behind for either single bonds (H2O) or double bonds with non-oxygen atoms (CO2).

Oh, yes. Every substance carrying a „peroxo“ in its name is usually nasty stuff. Concentrated hydrogenperoxide for example can explode creating gaseous water (aka steam) and dioxygen (aka oxygen) in the process. While O2 is a corrosive, it is quite inert under normal conditions (which is why our clothes don’t burst into flames spontaneously).

Diatomic oxygen is less stable than many other oxygen-containing compounds like CO2 (that is why charcoal burns) but diatomic nitrogen is pretty much as stable as nitrogen can get.

Hydrogen peroxide at sufficient concentration can be used as rocket fuel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_peroxide

"High-concentration H2O2 is referred to as "high-test peroxide" (HTP). It can be used either as a monopropellant (not mixed with fuel) or as the oxidizer component of a bipropellant rocket."

I mean, pure oxygen envs are pretty dangerous on their own, compared to pure N2.

When nitrogen compounds combust, they tend to produce nitrogen gas (N2). Since nitrogen molecules contain a very strong nitrogen-nitrogen triple bond, a lot of energy is released when they form.

They can form molecules where nitrogen is not in its lowest energy bond (which is the triple-bond N2 gas) and where a reaction to this lower energy molecule can be triggered with some small activation energy. The energy released provides the activation energy for nearby material so you get a chemical chain reaction.

I thought this was an informative read for someone who also only has a limited knowledge of chemistry:

https://wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2013/06/27/when-does-the-breaki...

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