High Density, Insensitive Oxidizer with RDX Performance

RDX and HMX are energetic oxidizers with high energy density, but have moderate sensitivity to accidental detonation. The Navy requires new energetic oxidizers with performance comparable to or better than HMX and RDX, but with low sensitivity. Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI), and its partner, propose to synthesize and characterize a new triazine based energetic oxidizer with high energy and low sensitivity. PSI has teamed with Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Energetic Materials Center on the proposed program. The targeted triazine properties include; standard enthalpy of formation (48 kcal/mol), density (2.2 g/cc), oxygen content (31%), C/O=1 and decomposition point (>250 degrees C). The new oxidizer is expected to be synthesized using a two step process, with only the final step providing HD1.1 material. The proposed team has developed a synthetic scheme to produce the molecule in two synthetic steps, one of which is directly from the literature. PSI and LLNL will work in parallel to demonstrate the synthesis of this high energy oxidizer using different strategies. LLNL will provide characterization of this promising ingredient. On a potential Phase II program, PSI, LLNL and Copperhead Chemical will investigate scale-up paths and provide hundreds of grams of the target for enhanced testing, formulation and characterization.