A new insight into the energetic co-agglomerate structures of attractive nitramines

Abstract

A new method of atmospheric co-agglomeration of energetic micro-particles has been applied to the preparation of the co-agglomerates of 1,3,5-trinitrobenzene-2,4-diamine (DATB) with 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX), 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetraazoctane (HMX), cis-1,3,4,6-tetranitrooctahydroimidazo[4,5–d]imidazole (BCHMX) or 2,4,6,8,10,12-hexanitro-2,4,6,8,10,12- hexaazaisowurtzitane (CL-20). The possible benefits of this method also for the alone production technology of the used nitramines are mentioned. Raman, FTIR and PXRD techniques have proven that resulting co-agglomerates (CACs) are co-crystals (CCs), where HMX is presented in its ȏ-modification and CL-20 in its ß-modification. Thermal analyses of these CCs have shown that the stability has increased in the BCHMX/DATB and decreased in the other CCs prepared. The impact sensitivity has decreased in the RDX and HMX CCs. In BCHMX CCs, this decrease is very low. In the case of ß-CL-20/DATB, its sensitivity is high; this increase is also explaineds in the context of impact sensitivity of a “common” quality of CL-20 in general. Attention is also paid to the relationships between thermochemical, performance- and impact sensitivity characteristics in correlation with some Raman and FTIR outputs, confirming the formation of cocrystals during co-agglomeration. All these mentioned relationships represent a new insight on the co-crystals investigation. The density of the co-crystals prepared exceeds 99% of the theoretical maximum density of the starting nitramines. Their performance is higher than would correspond to a simple calculation based on the percentage of individual components.