For those who care and that I’m not patronizing - this is the same kind of behavior you see in TNT (though way more extreme in this molecule). Basically the bonds in these molecules are so unstable they are teetering at the top of a hill and just need a nudge to roll down that hill and become far more stable and much lower energy nitrogen molecules (N2 as nitrogen a nitrogen molecule, not elemental N on the periodic table). When they roll down that hill they let off a huge amount of energy as the bonds break and reform. That energy can be translated to force, as it does in bombs. Just touching this stuff is enough to trigger the bonds to start breaking in a nasty chain reaction.
Amazing they were able to characterize this stuff (that is get the x-rays, NMR specs, etc). I think the only way this stuff could be useful is if it could be somehow completely immobilized in a liquid or solid until use. Sounds insanely dangerous!
TNT is much less sensitive in some important ways. You can heat it up enough to melt and pour it without it exploding, and you can subject it to a great deal of physical shock, too. You need to set it off with another (less stable) high explosive.
TNT is rather insensitive for an explosive. You need primers or high energies to set it off, you can melt it and it won't explode. In fact it's so insensitive that for decades people didn't realized it's an explosive and used it as a dye. And even after they did - it was exempt from most safety rules.
Shock sensitivity Insensitive
Friction sensitivity Insensitive to 353 N
Anegdoticaly - my grandpa told stories that after WW2 he and other kids found a lot of munitions in the forest and played with them. And TNT was so safe they used it as a fuel in stoves and it would just burn without exploding (and for quite a long time). Not sure how true it is, maybe it was a different material they just called TNT.
I think the energy in TNT mostly comes from the desire of carbon and hydrogen to join forces with the oxygen, which has a much higher activation energy than nitrogen leaving of its own accord.
Amazing they were able to characterize this stuff (that is get the x-rays, NMR specs, etc). I think the only way this stuff could be useful is if it could be somehow completely immobilized in a liquid or solid until use. Sounds insanely dangerous!