Thermal decomposition of energetic materials 27. Synthesis, characterization, and thermolysis of Cu(II)-doped “blue RDX”

✍ Scribed by Stephen F. Palopoli; Thomas B. Brill

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 456 KB
• Volume: 72
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-2180
• DOI: 10.1016/0010-2180(88)90115-0

✦ Synopsis

A Cu(II) complex was incorporated into RDX with copper at about the 400 ppm level giving distinctly blue crystals of RDX. Despite exhaustive attempts to determine the identity of the Cu(II) species, we were able to conclude only that RDX or an RDX fragment is present in the coordination sphere of the metal. By DSC copper-doped RDX exhibits a small exotherm at 175"C which is below the decomposition temperature of pure RDX. By using high-rate thermolysis and rapid-scan FTIR spectroscopy we found that copper-doped RDX liberates more N20 and CH20 and less NO2 than does pure RDX suggesting that, consistent with the DSC data, the extent of condensed phase chemistry is enhanced when the lattice is doped with this Cu(II) species.