From: glhurst@onr.com (Gerald L. Hurst)
Newsgroups: sci.chem
Subject: Re: CO2 Reaction Question
Date: 22 Mar 1996 07:45:26 GMT

In article <4it1nc$e2j@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, brianburt@aol.com
(BrianBurt) says:

>I desperately need the expertise of someone well versed in chemistry to
>answer the following question!
>
>I am starting work on a science fiction novel in which I need a very
>specific type of (hypothetical) chemical reaction to satisfy some central
>requirements of the plot.  Carbon dioxide and seawater need to be two of
>the reactants, and the reaction must:  A) be highly exothermic (the more
>violent, the better); and/or B) generate toxic product(s) (the more
>lethal, the better).  I have been using as a working premise some type of
>"mysterious" organometallic reactant/catalyst that, combined with CO2 and
>seawater, yields a carbonate (possibly calcium carbonate?) and explosive
>quantities of waste heat... but I'm not a chemist, and I don't know if
>this type of reaction is realistic or a candidate for satisfying my plot
>requirements.
>
>Any advice, guidance, or suggestions anyone out there can provide would be
>gratefully accepted and much appreciated.  (I promise to give proper
>credit in the book's acknowledgements.)  Thank you in advance for any
>input you can offer!

Why not?

Here's one that at least allows the suspension of disbelief.

Aluminum is added to many explosives because it reacts in such a
way as if it gobbled up the water either present in or produced by
the explosion. Some of these explosives are actually water solutions
of such things as ammonium, calcium or sodium nitrate or even the
odd perchlorate. Although  nobody knows exactly why, the 
hypothetically quite reactive mixture of aluminum and water does
not react explosively when smacked with a blasting cap or primer
unless an unspecified amount of oxidizer is added.

You can be pretty certain nobody has ever tried CO2/Water/Aluminum
powder at high concentrations of CO2 (High pressure). Since CO2
is liquifiable under pressure you can use pressure to create any
mixture of CO2/water you wish. If you say that that mixed liquid,
combined with aluminum powder, will detonate or at least explode 
under confinement, nobody can prove you wrong. You can even 
speculate that the carbonic acid present from the reaction of CO2
with water cleans the oxide film off the aluminum and sensitizes it.

If the creative license bothers you, just add some oxidizer to 
the brew, in the form of, say, ammonium nitrate and you've got
the first metallized explosive soda "POP" blasting agent.

Jerry (Ico)