Danger! Danger! High Volatility!
I used to work in a laboratory and that was a period of my life where I regularly brushed with death.

My most memorable experience was with a beaker of Nitrogen Tri-iodide. Now, for the uninitiated, Nitrogen Tri-iodide is an EXTREMELY unstable compound. You could leave a bowl of it on a laboratory bench for weeks, exposed to any manner of conditions and nothing could happen. Then, one day you could walk past, catch a gentle breeze and get thrown halfway across the laboratory! The UK military say it is an effective explosive, but refuse to use it because of this volatility. So when I say this is an extremely unstable compound, I'm not joking!

Anyway, chemistry lesson aside and back to the story.

I was bored in the laboratory and wondered what I could do to relieve the boredom. I started looking around the chemical cupboard, in the same way a hungry person would look at their larder. After a little foraging, I found a bottle of iodine. Then, I had an idea. I ran out to the warehouse and found a barrel of industrial strength ammonia. I took both chemicals and mixed them together, to form this highly unstable compound. When I created this compound, which could put Alfred Nobel to shame, I got a phone call. I put the beaker down in the fume cupboard and answered the phone, it was my boss.

"Stiggy! I need you to check some Tetra potassium Pyrophosphate, for the presence of phosphate!" he bellowed.

"Right-o!" I said, cheerfully.

Now, part of this test to check for the presence of phosphate, is to heat a mixture up to form a yellow precipitate. Which I did.....right next to the beaker of Nitrogen tri-iodide!

I stood there with my goggles on heating this phosphate mixture on a raging bunsen burner next to this beaker of evil! Eventually, I finished the test and turned the bunsen burner off.

I, then, walked outside to go home and got run over by a car.

I didn't look both ways.

Damn my stupidity......
(The Stig, Fri 13 Feb 2009, 0:04, 3 replies)

I know that stuff!
But I always thought that it only went off when you let it dry out...

In fact, that reminds me of a story that probably deserves a separate thread...
( MatJ LOOK, Fri 13 Feb 2009, 0:17, closed)

amonium tetraiodide
and it is very unstable when it dries out. great for small scale practical jokes...
( sudo is bored, Fri 13 Feb 2009, 21:44, closed)

So that's what it's called
My mate and I used to mix this up when we were kids, in VERY small amounts. A teaspoon full of dried powder was enough to blow 12 inches off the end of a broom handle.
(Helixdaunting, Thu 19 Feb 2009, 2:45, closed)