MERCURY FULMINATE REVEALED

Abstract

MERCURY FULMINATE, the super-sensitive explosive with a nefarious 300-year history, has been so difficult to handle in the lab that only now have scientists determined its crystal structure. Wolfgang Beck and Thomas M. Klapotke, professors at Ludwig Maximilians University, in Munich, Germany, and their colleagues report that, as expected, the molecule Hg(CNO) 2 is nearly linear. The mercury atom is bound to two carbon atoms, with the bonding arrangement 0-NΞC-Hg-GΞN-0 ( Z. Anorg. Allg. Chem . 2007 , 633,1417). This connectivity and linear structure was predicted by a number of groups, including Beck's and Klapotke's. Other groups, however, had predicted that the O atoms were bound to Hg. Mercury fulminate is sensitive to friction, heat, and shock, and it decomposes violently into mercury, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen. The word fulminate derives from a Latin term meaning to strike with lightning. Since the 17th century, alchemists had noticed the explosive properties of ...