Hexanitrobenzene

"Hexanitrobenzene, also known as HNB, is a high-density explosive compound with chemical formula C₆N₆O₁₂, obtained by oxidizing the amine group of pentanitroaniline with hydrogen peroxide in sulfuric acid."

"HNB has the undesirable property of being moderately sensitive to light and therefore hard to utilize safely. It is not currently used in any production explosives applications, though it is used as a precursor chemical in one method of production of TATB, another explosive."

"HNB was experimentally used as a gas source for explosively pumped gas dynamic laser.^[2] In this application, HNB and tetranitromethane is preferred to more conventional explosives because the explosion products CO₂ and N₂ are a simple enough mixture to simulate gas dynamic processes and quite similar to conventional gas dynamic laser medium. The water and hydrogen products of many other explosives could interfere with vibrational states of CO₂ in this type of laser."