• plinky [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    6 days ago

    it’s not much worse than usual explosives shrug-outta-hecks somewhere around better ethylene oxide or some shit, at the worst.

    it’s all journalism over-hyping (with hydrogen bomb naming), there are myriads of explosives which are just too expensive to use (either due to corrosiveness, instability on decade scales, difficulty in industrial handling etc)

    • context [fae/faer, fae/faer]@hexbear.netM
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      6 days ago

      it’s not much worse than usual explosives

      firebombs and oreshnik aren’t much worse than usual explosives shrug-outta-hecks

      it’s all journalism over-hyping (with hydrogen bomb naming)

      that’s what i was expecting at first.

      Until recently, magnesium hydride could only be produced in laboratories at the pace of a few grams per day. This is because binding hydrogen with magnesium requires high temperatures and pressure. Accidental exposure to the air during the manufacturing process can lead to deadly explosions. Earlier this year, China launched a magnesium hydride plant in the northwestern province of Shaanxi that can produce a staggering 150 tonnes of the material per year. Developed by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, the plant has achieved low production costs using a “one-pot synthesis” method, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

      if this last part is true, then they’ve overcome the industrial handling hurdle and can produce it at scale. i dunno if this one is just over-hyping.

      • plinky [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        6 days ago

        it was produced at that scale cause it has (had?) fuck all uses tbh, aluminium hydride is kinda samey but has very chemically friendly partners for use in synthesis, so is produced

          • plinky [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            6 days ago

            if it’s not overhyping usefulness and scale, i suspect so, they do direct synthesis under pressure seems like, so not very exotic, just wildly expensive.

            i think their diamond production is much more poggers, cause it’s harder to do and in the west diamond lobby do be existing