Question: What makes a substance highly explosive or radioactive?

James Beswick answered on 22 May 2020: last edited 22 May 2020 10:55 am

Great question – and a really interesting area (but quite complicated!). Potential energy in an explosive material can be stored as chemical energy, nuclear energy, or as energy in the form of a pressurised gas. As a chemist I will focus on chemical energy. A chemical explosive is a compound or mixture which decomposes or rearranges very quickly, yielding lots of gas and heat. Put simply, an explosive chemical isn’t very happy to be in its current form, and so given a little ‘kick’, it will jump at the chance to react to get out of it’s ‘strained’ form into something more stable. It’s a bit more complicated than this in reality, so I would recommend doing some research on the internet if you are interested in learning more about the science behind explosions (but please do not try this at home!).
—
It is a very similar story with radioactivity, except this time we are thinking about atoms of a particular element. Again, I am simplifying – but radioactive decay occurs in unstable atomic nuclei which decompose to more stable nuclei, releasing energy in the form of radioactivity (again – I would really recommend doing a bit of research on this as it is a fascinating area!).