Faster and Cleaner Method to Mass Produce Nano HMX/TNT Energetic Particles for Significantly Reduced Mechanical Sensitivity

J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2019 Sep 1;19(9):5783-5789. doi: 10.1166/jnn.2019.16526.

Abstract

Mechanochemical method is an environmentally friendly approach, which can facilely synthesize large-scale nano-scale HMX/TNT energetic particles. In the mechanochemical process, a large new structure was obtained by solid-state grinding of a starting physical mixture HMX and TNT in the presence of ethanol. Within the resulting nano HMX/TNT energetic particles, HMX and TNT molecules are crystallographically rearranged after IR and X-ray irradiation. The size and microstructure were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The thermal decomposition of the energetic particles was analyzed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Simultaneously, explosive property and impact safety performance tests and analysis were conducted. Results showed that nano HMX/TNT energetic particles offer a number of advantages in comparison with raw HMX and raw TNT including decreased size, stable thermal performance, reduced sensitivity and improved explosive property after the mechanochemical technology.