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Stabilization of Nitro‐Aromatics
Author(s) -
Deschamps Jeffrey R.,
Parrish Damon A.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
propellants, explosives, pyrotechnics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.56
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1521-4087
pISSN - 0721-3115
DOI - 10.1002/prep.201500074
Subject(s) - tatb , explosive material , nitro , sensitivity (control systems) , energetic material , chemistry , materials science , environmental science , organic chemistry , engineering , alkyl , detonation , electronic engineering
For a variety of reasons, including U.S. Federal law and improved safety, it is desirable to have insensitive munitions (IM). Although a variety of methods are available to reduce the sensitivity of munitions only changes to the high explosive (HE) itself result in increased safety during storage, transportation, handling, and deployment. As a result of this IM are almost always filled with fire resistant, shock resistant insensitive HE such as triaminotrinitrobenzene (TATB). The high cost of TATB has limited its use. In this study we examine 28 nitro‐aromatics, including TATB and five previously unpublished structures, in the solid state in order to identify forces that stabilize the HE. We show that the sum of forces involved in crystal packing (i.e. the estimated energy of stabilization) has a direct relationship to the observed sensitivity of nitro‐aromatic explosives.