Posted on 04/20/2025 10:24:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Chinese researchers have successfully detonated a hydrogen-based explosive device in a controlled field test, triggering devastating chemical chain reactions without using any nuclear materials, according to a study published last month. The 2kg (4.4lbs) bomb generated a fireball exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit) for more than two seconds – 15 times longer than equivalent TNT blasts – without using any nuclear materials, it said.
Developed by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation’s (CSSC) 705 Research Institute, a key player in underwater weapon systems, the device uses a magnesium-based solid-state hydrogen storage material.
Chinese researchers have successfully detonated a hydrogen-based explosive device in a controlled field test, triggering devastating chemical chain reactions without using any nuclear materials, according to a study published last month. The 2kg (4.4lbs) bomb generated a fireball exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit) for more than two seconds – 15 times longer than equivalent TNT blasts – without using any nuclear materials, it said.
Developed by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation’s (CSSC) 705 Research Institute, a key player in underwater weapon systems, the device uses a magnesium-based solid-state hydrogen storage material.
The new technology centers on the use of magnesium hydride (MgH2), a white or silvery crystalline powder that's capable of storing an outsize amount of hydrogen.
The material and its extraordinary solid-state storage potential originally piqued scientists' interest for a peaceful purpose: transporting hydrogen to off-grid locations for use generating clean energy and heat by way of fuel cells. Magnesium hydride's storage capacity is far superior to pressurized tanks. The material is also of interest to scientists in the field of spacecraft propulsion.
(Excerpt) Read more at scmp.com ...
This highlights a fact that a lot of electric vehicle proponents fail to take into account any energy storage battery with the kind of energy density storage capacity needed to power an efficient electric vehicle is going to have an energy density capable of being a bomb and making a pretty good explosion.
...because every State Shipbuilding Corporation needs a non-nuclear hydrogen bomb ...
Fuel air explosives are supersonic detonation waves, 1000-2000 fps TNT is 22,000 fps so yeah a lot slower and also over a much larger area as in 100+ foot wide clouds all of which is the explosive source vs a single high density point.
The obvious advantage is the shockwave is larger in area volume and also you don’t have to carry the weight of oxygen in your payload the air supplies that. This is in no way a nuclear device people heat hydrogen and think thermonuclear weapon this is a combustion weapon not a fusion one.
Like the Soviets before them, and the Russians with them.....they have an hysterical inferiority complex with the West, especially America.
Consequently, they lie like rugs about new miracle discoveries, new miracle weapons, new miracle miracles.....all lies, spin, propaganda, PR, balderdash...but all serving a purpose.
How many missed the bullwhoop timing of their “DeepSeek” claims at the same time Wall Street was dumping $500mm into AI?
DeepSeek’s secret is probably Grok or Chat GP behind a $100 Temu user interface.
Everything they do is to cause fear, uncertainty and doubt.
I would think 100 micron or so in size large enough to be dispersed by a reasonable bursting charge over a few hundred feet diameter spheriod but small enough to still have large surface area to not only outgas the hydrogen but have a rapid burn when the hydrogen shock and heat flash hits it. The whole idea is use the magnesium to hold hydrogen at moderate pressures and much higher density vs compressed gas. As a bulk powder in its pressure container it’s dense, inert and stable. Put a small low brilliance bursting charge down the middle of the cylinder tank and score the steel walls so when the burst goes off you get a rapidly expanding cloud of magnesium particles rapidly dispensing themselves with air. Since the pressure is now off the magnesium particles they will rapidly outgas their hydrogen directly into the surrounding air this is 10s-100 milliseconds in time frame, wind nor buoyant gas lift have no effect on sub 500 millisecond timelines. You now have a hundred foot or wider area filled with hydrogen ,and magnesium dust ready to propagate a detonation wave. All you need is a small high brilliance charge near the center of that cloud to kick off the detonation wave it is self propagating after that initial shock start. Big BOOM easily 10 to 20x the equivalent mass in TNT and since the shockwave is moving outwards at full detonation velocity until it hits the edge of the cloud your shockwave does not fall off at the fourth power of distance until the edge unlike a point source it’s equal to having a block of TNT a hundred feet wide vs what 21” for a cruise missile sized warhead, smaller for a low drag air dropped jdam. That effect combined with the displacement of so much atmosphere has a blast effect more akin to a nuclear fireball than a point source detonation. A small tactical nuke would have a 100 meter wide fireball which is also the size of its initial shock front, a decent sized FAE will have a 30 meter wide fireball at similar initial shock breakaway pressures of a couple thousand PSI. Perfect for knocking buildings flat which only takes 5psi or so. Human lungs pop at 25 w/o the possibility of survival when they do.
Francois:
Do you know what kind of a bomb it was?
Clouseau:
The exploding kind.
Think of it like a Coal Dust explosion but ten times more exothermic. Magnesium is extremely reactive especially if the air is wet. Water and Magnesium ignitions are violent. So this would be even more powerful if dropped in a rain storm. It converts water to Hydrogen and Oxygen gasses.
Thanks, free traitors.
No a hydrogen magnesium based in their own words chemical combustion weapon is not going to leave buildings standing it is the very best nonnuclear way of leveling buildings over a wide area. It unlike a point source bin like a jdam spears it’s explosive power a half a football field area for a full sized weapon when that whole area becomes fuel for a supersonic detonation wave everything inside that area is instantly incinerated at 1000+C and crushed by thousands of PSI of overpressure. The whole cloud is the explosive mass once the shockwave hits the edge of that area it detaches from the fireball in mach front expanding outwards first at supersonic speeds and 1000+ psi which falls off at the fourth power of distance so the radius to 5 psi is measured in meters not miles like a nuke. 300 meters would be a reasonable distance for a 1000kg FAE that means most structures inside that radius would be knocked over. Not a small area much larger than a 1000kg jdam could knock over. This is the sole purpose of mixed explosive weapons that and every human not inside armor would be dead out to the 25 psi curve inside the fireball they are incinerated then crushed beyond any recognition.
From what it looks like it is designed to consume all the Oxygen and suffocate rather than create a physical destructive shock wave.
That was OUR "success", offshored to get around the strict regulations that would have prevented it.
Magnesium hydrate holds more hydrogen by mass than liquid hydrogen in equal volume. No need for water although it would help. You simply load the magnesium itself with hydrogen at moderate pressures it forms a hydrate compound that is stable until the pressure is released and the hydrate compound collapses quite energeticly to magnesium and hydrogen gas. The trick is getting the magnesium to scatter before premature ignition. Once you get 18% hydrogen in air you only need a simple shockwave to set off a self propagating detonation wave. The window is 18 to 60% hydrogen to air anywhere in that window and hydrogen doesn’t burn if you hit it with a shockwave it detonates with high brilliance.
The vacuum effect is inherent to fuel air detonations, they do by design consume all the available oxygen but if you are inside that cloud when the wave goes by the heat at 1000+C and thousands of psi of pressure is going to kill you well before lack of O2. In open air the fireball roses rapidly due to its heat and fresh air rushes in. The only time the oxygen effect matters is if you set one off in a enclosed area like a cave or tunnels then the fireball cannot escape and the combustion products spread outwards. We used that effect in Afghanistan and the caves there with thernobaric weapons which are just a subclass of FAEs. If you set off a hydrogen flame front in air and it’s 18-60% in concentration there is a fairly good chance it makes the transition on it’s own to full detonation wave. You can ensure this by using a TNT or RDX initiation charge in the dispensed mix that shockwave will always propagate in a 18-60% hydrogen atmosphere. So you have a choice detonate the mix or spark it and even the spark ignition can make the jump to detonation on it’s own.
Thing is it doesn’t need a shock to actually ignite it. All it needs is a flame of a certain temp, and once it lights it is self perpetuating. I have used Magnesium in CAD welding applications. You just pour the granules on and ignite it with a propane torch and it lights off.
But like you say, it would have to be disbursed first into a dust cloud and then ignited. But I think it could be done almost simultaneously with an internal conventional explosion first that also ignites it at the same time. The ignition flame should chase the disbursal pattern from the center out.
Basically like a stick of Dynamite in a Coal Bin... So it would actually probably work better if it was not in a pressure containment shell like conventional weapons.
Gasoline has more energy per gram than TNT by a good bit. One gallon depending on how you mix and burn it has 14-86 sticks of dynamite worth of energy. Propane same same in fact propane was the first fuel used for fuel air munitions in Vietnam by the USA it has much more bang than TNT per unit of mass.
I doubt you could get a lithium cell to detonate it’s not the lithium burning which is in ion form either a salt or bonded to carbon or some other cation. It is the flammable electrolytes that burn just dumping the stored electrons through a liquid electrolytes won’t detonate it, burn yes that’s deflag vs detonation subsonic burn rates vs supersonic shockwaves. You would get arcing and.fire but not a shockwave at supersonic speeds.
IOW, they made a thermo-baric bomb out of compressed hydrogen............
A cardboard barrel of fine Magnesium Powder with a stick of Dynamite in the middle. This should disburse the powder out ahead of the ignition flame which would then chase it.
Yes, a bursting charge is needed , as well as a initiation charge even if the particles spontaneously combust you want a shockwave passing through the mixed products. I described the sequence USA weapons use a couple posts up we have used propane, and ethylene oxide as fuels both will detonate in air with initiation by a high brilliance material once mixed with air within their detonation limits. We dropped them on Iraqi troops in Gulf 1 the survivors were so terrified they surrendered to anyone they could find.
The Chinese must have figured out how to dispense the magnesium hydrate before it prematurely combusts, initiation is easy any high brilliance material will do it. I would think they coated the hydrate particles with a material that resists oxygen just long enough for the hydrogen to outgas and fill the surrounding air a few tens of microseconds is all you need a crackable ceramic coat would work. Scatter particles as the pressure drops the hydrogen breaks the coating and pours ooutwards a few microseconds later you set off the TNT initiator and BOOM the whole cloud propagates a supersonic detonation wave. Elegent and very deadly.
Stalin said the hydrogen bomb is the perfect Capitalist weapon. It kills people but doesn’t destroy property
No but Hydrogen and Oxygen mixed from the charging of Lithium cells will absolutely explode violently with a shock wave if it is in a pressure container.
In fact this combination is breathable and undetectable to humans... This combination is used for Deep Sea Diving. And it can be ignited with a static electricity spark.
Such as from a touchscreen...
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