From: omnisnert@gmail.com   
      
   On 2023-10-24 10:04 AM, Martin Brown wrote:   
   > On 22/10/2023 18:16, OmniSnert wrote:   
   >> Another bit of chemistry that I'm not able to figure out is a   
   >> description of the late uncle who left behind the laboratory in which   
   >> the narrator does her work.  "It was rumored that he had been studying   
   >> the first-order decomposition of nitrogen pentoxide. If that was true,   
   >> it was the first recorded research into a reaction which was to lead   
   >> eventually to the development of the A-bomb." What's the connection   
   >> between N2O5 and atomic bombs?   
   >   
   > It is just about conceivable that one of the high explosives they used   
   > in the shaped charges for implosion weapons used N2O5 in its synthesis.   
   > But UF6 and actinide separation chemistry played a much bigger part...   
   >   
   > N2O5 its own Wiki page as "anhydrous nitric acid" / "powerful oxidiser".   
   > I think it would be far too volatile for anyone without a death wish to   
   > use in the manufacture of high explosives but I could be wrong.   
   >   
   > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinitrogen_pentoxide   
   >   
   > Physics obviously played a much bigger part...   
      
   All that I could think of was that it could be used to convert hydrated   
   uranyl nitrate to anhydrous uranyl nitrate (+ nitric acid). React that   
   with fluorine and get UF6, N2, and O2. I don't know if it would be   
   particularly useful to not have HF as a side product there.   
      
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