AgCNO
Silver fulminate · fulminating silver
Silver fulminate is a highly sensitive and unstable chemical compound primarily used as a primary explosive.
About Silver fulminate
Silver fulminate is a crystalline inorganic compound that functions as a wide-gap insulator. It is characterized by its high sensitivity and significant thermodynamic instability, placing it well above the stability hull in terms of energy states.
Due to its inherent reactivity, the material is primarily recognized for its historical and specialized use in explosive applications. Its complex structural chemistry is evidenced by the diverse range of reported crystal configurations found across materials databases.
Key Properties
Cross-validated computational properties for Silver fulminate, aggregated across 5 databases.
Band GapEnergy needed to move an electron from the valence band to the conduction band. Lower or zero values tend to behave more metallic; larger gaps are more insulating or semiconducting.
Energy Above HullThermodynamic distance from the most stable set of competing phases. 0 eV/atom is on the convex hull; small positive values may still be experimentally accessible.
StabilityA plain-language summary of the best reported energy-above-hull result. It reflects whether the lowest-energy structure is on, near, or far from the stability hull.
StructuresCount of reported calculated crystal structures for this formula, including alternate polymorphs, source databases, and observed space groups.
Cross-Source DFT Agreement
How well independent DFT databases agree on the thermodynamics of AgCNO. Tight agreement means computed properties can be trusted without re-running calculations.
Agreement ScoreA normalized confidence score summarizing how closely independent DFT databases agree. Higher scores mean tighter cross-source agreement.
Hull SpreadDifference between the highest and lowest energy-above-hull values reported by comparable sources. Smaller spread means less thermodynamic disagreement.
Sources ComparedNumber and names of computational sources with comparable entries for this formula.
Space Group ConsensusWhether independent sources predict the same crystal symmetry for the lowest-energy structure.
Reported Structures
Lowest-energy structures reported for AgCNO, ranked by energy above hull.
| Space GroupSymmetry classification of the crystal arrangement. The number is the international space-group index. | Crystal SystemBroad lattice family, such as cubic, tetragonal, monoclinic, or triclinic, derived from unit-cell symmetry. | Band Gap (eV)Electronic gap calculated for this specific reported structure, measured in electronvolts. | E above hull (eV/atom)Thermodynamic distance from the convex hull for this structure, normalized per atom. Lower is generally more stable. | E/atom (eV)Computed total energy normalized per atom. Use energy above hull, not this value alone, when comparing stability. | Density (g/cm³)Mass per relaxed crystal volume, reported in grams per cubic centimeter. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 3.09 | 0.1911 | -0.387 | — |
| P21/m (No. 11) | monoclinic | 3.18 | 0.2317 | -0.267 | — |
| P21/m (No. 11) | monoclinic | 3.07 | 0.2440 | -6.759 | 3.53 |
| — | — | 3.09 | 0.7664 | 0.189 | — |
| — | — | 2.07 | 0.7886 | 0.211 | — |
| R-3 (No. 148) | trigonal | 2.82 | 0.8254 | -6.178 | 3.38 |
| Cmcm (No. 63) | orthorhombic | 2.35 | 0.8343 | -6.169 | 3.42 |
| Cmcm (No. 63) | orthorhombic | 2.01 | 0.8598 | 0.361 | — |
| — | — | 1.47 | 0.8672 | 0.290 | — |
| Pmmn (No. 59) | orthorhombic | 1.37 | 0.9155 | 0.417 | — |
| Pmmn (No. 59) | orthorhombic | 1.30 | 0.9253 | -6.078 | 3.99 |
| — | — | 0.00 | 2.7374 | 2.160 | — |
Applications
Where Silver fulminate is used.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Silver fulminate, answered from cross-validated data.
What is AgCNO?
Silver fulminate is a highly sensitive and unstable chemical compound primarily used as a primary explosive.
What is AgCNO used for?
What is the band gap of AgCNO?
Is AgCNO a metal, semiconductor, or insulator?
Is AgCNO thermodynamically stable?
What is the crystal structure of AgCNO?
What is the density of AgCNO?
How many polymorphs of AgCNO are known?
What elements does AgCNO contain?
Where does the data for AgCNO come from?
How It Compares
As a unique and highly reactive inorganic compound, silver fulminate occupies a distinct position in materials science where its extreme instability differentiates it from more conventional, thermodynamically stable insulating salts.
Data sources & attribution
- oqmd — Data from the OQMD (oqmd.org). Cite: Saal et al., JOM 65, 1501 (2013); Kirklin et al., npj Comp. Mater. 1, 15010 (2015). (CC-BY-4.0)
- jarvis — Data from JARVIS (jarvis.nist.gov), NIST. Cite: Choudhary et al., npj Comp. Mater. 6, 173 (2020). (LicenseRef-US-Gov-PD)
- materials_project — Data from the Materials Project (materialsproject.org). Cite: Jain et al., APL Materials 1, 011002 (2013). (CC-BY-4.0)
- mpaloe — Data from MP-ALOE. Cite: Kuner et al., npj Comput. Mater. (2025), doi:10.1038/s41524-025-01834-9.
- cod — Data from the Crystallography Open Database (crystallography.net/cod/). Cite: Grazulis et al., J. Appl. Cryst. 42, 726 (2009). (CC0-1.0)
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