Cis-1,3,4,6-tetranitrooctahydroimidazo-[4,5-d]imidazole (BCHMX) as a part of low sensitive compositions based on DATB or HNAB

Abstract

A new focus in the fields of energetic materials is on preserving high performance while enhancing manipulation safety. In this work, a special type of plastic-bonded explosive (PBX) mixture has begun to be developed by combining a new nitramine, cis-1,3,4,6-tetranitrooctahydroimidazo-[4,5-d]imidazole (BCHMX), with the thermally stable explosives 1,3-diamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (DATB) and 2,2’,4,4’,6,6’-hexanitroazobenzene (HNAB) bonded by a styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) binder. The studied PBXs prepared are insensitive explosives. They have been compared with Czech plastic explosives (SEMTEX 10 and SEMTEX 1H), a new Egyptian plastic explosive (EPX-1), a Swedish plastic explosive (Sprängdeg m/46) and with analogous PBXs, filled by 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane (RDX) and β-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane (β-HMX), and cis-1,3,4,6-tetranitrooctahydroimidazo-[4,5-d]imidazole (BCHMX). The individual explosives, PETN, BCHMX, β-HMX and RDX, have been studied as well. The impact and friction sensitivities have been obtained along with the measured detonation velocities. The detonation characteristics have also been calculated using the EXPLO5 code. The relationship between performance and sensitivity as well as mechanical sensitivity has been investigated. The results have shown that DATB has a significant influence on the reduction of the sensitivity of BCHMX to a level close to TNT and much lower than all the other studied plastic explosives. In addition, the new PBX based on BCHMX and DATB has higher detonation characteristics than the commercial PBXs and TNT. The influence of DATB on BCHMX is a promising topic requiring more research for its application.