Fact or Fiction: POP Culture meets ChemistryCould that really happen?

FACT OR FICTION PROJECT: AP CHEMISTRY

Objective The objective of this year-end project is to emphasize research and technical writing skills by finding a chemistry related concept in a movie/media clip and testing the validity of its claim by doing research.

Expected Products1.Oral Presentation on Research Findings: PowerPoint or imovie with the media clip (under 3 minutes) inserted ( not to exceed 10 minutes total)

Fulminated MercuryThe Next Frontier of Explosives? FACT or

FICTION

Video Background

• In Breaking Bad, Walt is a high school chemistry teacher turned criminal producing metamphetamine (crystal meth) to sell on the black market.

• At one point his partner, Jesse, gets swindled and beaten up by a psychopathic gangster named Tuco.

• The following video shows Walt's confrontation with Tuco and subsequent explosion using Mercury Fulminate.

Breaking Bad Video Clip

Could a small crystal of mercury fulminate really blow windows out and shatter glass?

Research Problem

Properties of Mercury Fulminate

-It is prepared by reacting mercury with nitric acid and then adding ethanol.

-The crystals are usually brown to grey (due to colloidal mercury) and large crystals are extremely unstable

-Pressure changes, vibrations and shock can lead to detonation. The explosive properties can be demonstrated in the lab by hitting a very small crystal with a hammer.

Properties of Mercury Fulminate

• insoluble in water

• exists as white powder

Mercury (II) fulminate comprises two fulminate ions (CNO-) bonded to a central mercury atom.

Mercury (II) fulminate is very sensitive because of the instability of the fulminate ion.

Reasons for Instability

• single bond is unstable-->immediately break in most reactions

• nitrogen will most likely bond with other nitrogen atoms, forming nitrogen gas.

Detonation of Mercury Fulminate

• Detonation produces mercury vapor, carbon monoxide and nitrogen.

• Potential Explosion Pathway

2Hg(CNO)2 → 2CO2+N2+Hg(CN)2

The explosion

-Ultimately only .9-1.8 kJ of energy would be received by windows which is not enough to shatter them!

-The Verdict based on the research: FICTION!!

The Process of ResearchIdentify an area of interest

Search sources for relevant information

Evaluate Resources

Choosing a Topic

Research Question

Or too narrow..

Example of too broad a topic: Is there a material

that can pull the weight of an average sized human

without breaking?

Example of too narrow a topic: What is the

numerical value of the tensile strength of a nylon-

based material?