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Fulminate (II) and Breaking Bad?
After watching Breaking Bad I was curious about mercury (II) fulminate. Could make for some Halloween fun if it's truly non-lethal. Is it? Is this what those finger snaps things are made out of? Those aren't my real question, but would appreciate feed back.
My real question, and i don;t know how to put this into words exactly... Carbon has "four spaces to fill" and nitrogen has 3. That explains carbon's attachment to the mercury. Two C-N molecules should be content to stick to mercury atom, but in the fulminate ion there's an oxygen atom attached to the nitrogen. There's a "+" above the nitrogen and a "-" above the oxygen. Some part of me realizes why it's so explosive, but how is its structure possible? What do those symbols mean? Does nitrogen "crave" an extra electron? Is Nitrogen a diva? What major area of chemistry was I denied in college? lol HELP!! XD
2 Answers
- kumorifoxLv 78 years agoFavorite Answer
Mercury fulminate is real, but it is way too unstable and shock-sensitive to be used for much. The Breaking Bad scene is exaggerated, but the solid would definitely detonate upon such treatment.
Nitrogen is an unusual atom in bonding. It can hold 8 electrons in its valence shell (the "bonding" shell, if you will). Normally, this would lead to it forming 3 bonds, since it already has 5 electrons and only needs 3 more. However, it can use the remaining 2 electrons in the lone pair to form what is known as a dative covalent bond.
In the fulminate structure, the fulminate ion is C≡N-O. Nitrogen has used its lone pair to form a 4th bond. If you count the electrons, N has 8. The instability is due to its "formal charge", a way to express the charge on an atom, assuming electrons are shared equally. To determine formal charge on an atom, you count the number of electrons in the bonds and divide by 2, and add the number of electrons in lone pairs. Then you compare this result with the original number and see what the difference is. In the fulminate ion, N has (8/2) + 0 = 4 electrons, which is one fewer than in a normal N atom, so it carries a formal charge of +1.
To have a full octet, oxygen must have 3 lone pairs around it. The O atom has (2/2) + 6 = 7 electrons, so it has a formal charge of -1. This explains the charges in the ion.
An it is not actually nitrogen that is the "diva", it is oxygen. Oxygen draws electrons to itself so strongly that not even nitrogen can withstand its pull. Hence why oxygen can form the bond when the C≡N bond should be highly stable already.
- Dr WLv 78 years ago
if you recall... electrons have a negative charge.
so to make N+.., the N must lose an electron.. not gain one.
The reason that O takes the electron from N is because O has a higher electronegativity than N in that molecule. The reason the electronegativity is higher in O, is because that gives the atoms (and the molecule) an overall lower energy state.
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"snap its" are made of silver fulminate... which is even more explosive than mercury fulminate. The amount of silver fulminate in snap its is in the order of 1/10th of a milligram. Tiny amounts!
Are they something you should mess around with? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Do not try making silver or mercury fulminate at home. EVER. These are dangerous compounds.
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I kind of agree with Kumorifox on this one. I think the breaking bad scene was a bit unrealistic. HOWEVER, WW had a bag of mercury fulminate crystals. Maybe 100 grams worth. If you can imagine 100x1000x10 snapits all going off at once in a confined space, well, that would be a fairly large explosion in my opinion and that's about the amount of explosive material in the TV episode.
