If you have fond childhood memories of hacking with explosives and other nasty stuff, have a look at http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/things-i-wont-work-wi... .Just scratching the surface of his examples (but don't scratch the chemicals): Molecules with lots of nitrogen (like C2N14), chlorine trifluoride (sets water, sand and asbestos on fire), all sorts of azides, and horribly smelling selenium compounds. Following links, I found this nice page from Livermore https://str.llnl.gov/str/June01/Manaa.html It says "the Department of Energy’s most sophisticated high explosive in nuclear weapons, TATB (1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene)." Believe it, or not. Another link leads to the out of print book "Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants" by John D. Clark. It's hard to find, and sellers are asking $10,000, but you can download the PDF for free. I've recommended it to Dover to reprint. -- Gene