Powerful explosive blasts onto scene.(Brief Article)

After nearly 20 years of effort, researchers have achieved the synthesis of octanitrocubane, a compound that could be one of the most powerful nonnuclear explosives known.

Philip E. Eaton and Mao-Xi Zhang of the University of Chicago and Richard Gilardi of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., report their feat in the Jan. 17 ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE INTERNATIONAL EDITION.

Eaton synthesized the parent compound, cubane, in 1964. At the time, cubane had one of the highest densities of any known hydrocarbon--1.29 grams per cubic centimeter. Gasoline by…