Dec 18, 2022
Good question. You're right, the explosion is exothermic, giving off light and heat, but the compound itself is incredibly endothermic, as it absorbs a lot of heat from the surroundings. With it's very unstable bonds and the compound being highly endothermic means it has a huge amount of potential energy. When it is disturbed, all this potential energy is then released in an exothermic reaction.