Will buckybombs find use in medicine?

Scientists have turned fullerene molecules into nanobombs,
producing extremely powerful explosions at the nanoscale

DailyTechInfo based on Popular science: Nanobomb Creates Massive Explosion On Tiny ScaleThere are quite a lot of substances and compounds in the world that explode in various ways.

And all these substances are widely used not only in grenades, mines, shells and other ammunition, they have a lot of more peaceful applications, for example, in the mining industry, in powder metallurgy and in other industries where it is required to quickly create very high pressure. However, the need to undermine something periodically arises during research in the field of biomedicine and nanotechnology, and, of course, this requires special tiny, but highly effective nanobombs.

An unusual kind of nanobombs was developed by scientists from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles together with researchers from the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. They took C60 fullerene molecules, buckyballs consisting of 60 carbon atoms and shaped like a soccer ball, combined them with nitrous oxide molecules. And after that, they forced the whole thing to explode, dubbed "bakibomb" by heating to a temperature of 700 degrees Celsius.

Observing the course of the explosion process, scientists found out that after about a picosecond, the fullerene molecule breaks up into separate carbon parts, which fly apart and react further with nitrous oxide molecules, increasing the power and temperature of the nano-explosion. Literally in 50 trillionths of a second, the temperature in the area of the nano-explosion rises from 700 to 3700-4000 degrees Celsius, and it is hot enough to melt most of the known metals.

The explosion of a fullerene molecule is tiny on a normal scale, but at the nanoscale, at the level of individual atoms, it is comparable to the explosion of an unusually powerful bomb.

Figure from the article Vitaly V. Chaban et al. Buckybomb: Reactive Molecular Dynamics Simulation (J.Phys.Chem.Lett., 2015) – VM.

Scientists admit that the field of nano-explosive technologies is absolutely new and has not yet been completely explored. And such a situation has developed primarily due to the lack of tiny nano-explosive substances. Now, having demonstrated the work of their "backbombs", the researchers plan to research areas in which they can be used for various purposes.

But some of the areas of application of all this are still being overlooked. For example, some scientists are conducting experiments with carbon nanotubes, the cavity of which is filled with water and which, when heated by a laser, explode, destroying cancer cells. Nanobombs made of fullerene molecules, which have a greater destructive ability than nanotubes, can become even more deadly weapons in the fight against cancer, viruses and bacteria, completely destroying tiny microorganisms, malignant cells and leaving the rest of the human body intact.

And now – a question from a Healthy Skeptic:It is not difficult to attach guidance devices to such tank bombs – for example, specific to a certain protein of the virus or cancer cell envelope – at the present time.

Maybe, with the help of some super-duper tomography, it will be possible to accurately localize nanomishen - for example, atherosclerotic plaques plastered with buckybombs. Or even bacteria frolicking in the bloodstream – fantasize, so big :)
But what will happen to the "rest of the human body" when it is stitched with millions (or billions?) even if there are sooo short laser pulses, not only penetrating to an unattainable depth for them, but also with an intensity capable of heating the tank bomb to the desired temperature?
Maybe it's better to go straight to the morgue?

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru12.03.2015