Primary explosives, unlike secondary explosives, show a very rapid transition from combustion (or deflagration) to detonation and are considerably sensitive to small stimuli, such as impact, friction, electrostatic discharge, and heat. Primary explosives generate either a large amount of heat or a shockwave, which makes the transfer of the detonation to a less sensitive propellant or secondary explosive possible.1 Primary explosives are key components in detonators and primers, which are the initiating elements to many military items such as small, medium, and large caliber munitions, mortars, artillery, warheads, etc. The two most common military primary explosives are lead azide and lead styphnate. Lead based compounds such as these have well‐established hazards to health and the environment. To overcome these concerns, in common U.S. Army detonators and primers lead azide was replaced with DBX‐1 [copper(I) nitrotetrazolate], recently developed by Pacific Scientific Energetic Materials Company and the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center at Indian Head. Further, in order to minimize the dangers to personnel and equipment associated with synthesizing and handling primary explosives, a dedicated, remote‐operated facility for the synthesis and testing of primary explosives has been developed.

Copper(I) 5-nitrotetrazolate (DBX-1) has emerged in recent years as a primary explosive that could serve as a replacement for lead azide (LA), a widely used explosive that has fallen out of favor due to its toxicity and chemical compatibility issues. While there is a significant amount of interest in this material, the development of DBX-1 has been hampered by the tedious and poorly understood chemical process for its preparation. To consistently produce DBX-1, two explosive intermediates must be isolated, and one of them requires purification. In this article, we present an improved process for the synthesis of DBX-1. In this process, neither of these intermediates needs to be handled by an operator, and the purification step is no longer necessary. It would be practical to perform the entire process under remote control, a necessity for energetic material manufacturing. We discuss the implications of our findings for the development of a robust process for the reproducible production of high quality DBX-1.

No abstract