Synthesis and Characterization of Halogenated Cyclic Nitramines

The Army recognizes a continuing need for more powerful high explosives that have improved energy density. To increase the energy of nitramine materials further, a highly promising strategy is to modify the inherent crystalline density of RDX/HMX materials by structural substitution of hydrogen atoms with halogen atoms. In the Phase I program, Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) demonstrated that direct synthetic routes using RDX/HMX have low preparative value to produce halogenated derivatives. In this Phase II Program, Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) and its team member, Nalas Engineering Services Inc. (Nalas) propose to synthesize halogenated RDX derivatives through indirect routes that use advanced intermediates. The proposed processes are innovative, safe and highly amenable to scale-up. In a first stage, PSI and Nalas will synthesize gram quantities of these compounds that will be thoroughly characterized using advanced structural analytical methods. Selected compounds will be supplied for sensitivity, energetic performance and compatibility testing at Army laboratories. PSI and Nalas will then investigate scale-up paths and provide hundreds of grams of a selected target compound for enhanced testing, formulation and characterization at Army laboratories.