I’m writing a story and I’m not sure if one of my plot devices works. I asked a similar question on Physics SE because I thought it concerned quantum tunnelling but they needed more information to answer it and I don’t know how to get that information. Any advice that can be given would be sorely appreciated.
In my plot, the military have developed a new compound that bonds with organic material and is also a poison in that it asphyxiates once inside the body. [It is unlike cyanide though which features elsewhere in the story.]
The problem is, the compound is difficult to contain in the volumes required to produce it. It is safer when installed in weapons in small amounts but large volumes seem to be unstable and leaks keep being found - with lethal consequences.
In the back of my mind, a nagging voice equates smaller volumes being more unstable in reality, I guess due to the unpredictable nature of constituent particles.
Still though, my plot demands that the military are finding the compound impossible to contain safely (at production levels).
My question is, how exactly would a compound prove so hard to contain? I imagine it breaks down in some random way and the constituent particles escape through minute weaknesses in the containment material or even tunnel through seemingly solid walls (like I mentioned with quantum tunnelling).
So, I’m a bit stuck with the technical aspect of my story.
Would it be possible to develop an uncontainable substance?