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Betsy. (a muffin).

feel like I'm leveling up as a chemist; starting to develop an instinctive cringe response when I see more than 2 nitrogens in the same molecule

"Predict the major product from reacting ethylene oxide with sodium azide:"

Look, textbook, I know the answer you're looking for is an ethoxide with some bonus nitrogens, but the actual answer is obviously going to involve explosive side reactions, so what if we just didn't.

(For the uninitiated, azides are three nitrogens hangin' out in a little explosive clump; ethylene oxide is stable in isolation but *reactive af.*)

@betsythemuffin
Some comments on explosive nitrogen compounds. The author’s comments on FOOF (F₂O₂ if you can believe it) in another article are even more, shall I say, acidic.

science.org/content/blog-post/

www.science.orgThings I Won't Work With: Hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane

@SpeakerToManagers He's a delight, isn't he.

Over the past few years I've grown more able to understand his more serious commentaries on drug development as well, and that's been nifty.