High-Yielding and Continuous Fabrication of Nanosized CL-20-Based Energetic Cocrystals via Electrospraying Deposition

Abstract

Energetic cocrystals, especially CL-20-based cocrystals, have attracted a wide range of attention due to their low sensitivity and impressive detonation performance. In this study, a series of nanosized CL-20-based energetic cocrystals were successfully fabricated by electrospray deposition. For CL-20/TNT nanococrystals, the influence of different solvents on the morphology and crystal structure of as-prepared cocrystals were investigated. The results showed that all the electrosprayed CL-20/TNT samples were partial formation of cocrystals and particles obtained from ketone had smaller size than those obtained from ethyl solvents. In contrast, electrosprayed CL-20/DNB nanococrystals had completely formed the cocrystal structure proved by DSC and PXRD. Moreover, the terahertz (THz) result confirmed the formation of intermolecular hydrogen bonds. Additionally, we have fabricated the CL-20/TNB cocrystals for the first time by using electrospray method. The PXRD and DSC results confirmed the formation of this novel energetic cocrystal. Expectedly, all the electrosprayed nanosized CL-20-based cocrystals exhibited visible reduced impact sensitivity compared with raw CL-20. The electrospray can thus offer a flexible and versatile approach for continuous and high-yielding synthesis of nanosized energetic cocrystals with preferable safety performance, and provide an efficient screening to quickly distinguish whether two energetic materials can form a cocrystal.

Investigation on Adsorption and Decomposition Properties of CL-20/FOX-7 Molecules on MgH2(110) Surface by First-Principles

“…The ε-polymorph is stable at room temperature and shows the highest density [45]. One ε-CL-20 molecule [46,47] (as in Figure 2) was placed on the upper side of the MgH 2 (110) surface. Two types of nitro groups exist in the CL-20 molecule.…”

Rapid and High‐Yielding Formation of CL‐20/DNDAP Cocrystals via Self‐Assembly in Slightly Soluble‐Medium with Improved Sensitivity and Thermal Stability

“…However, its development has been hindered by the expensive spray dryer instrument and unclear formation mechanism. To the best of our knowledge, up to now the highest yield of CL‐20/EMs cocrystal is from CL‐20/HMX cocrystal (80 %∼90 %, RAM method) and CL‐20/TNT cocrystal (88.3 %, electrospray deposition method) , respectively. In this work, we report a rapid and high‐yielding preparation of CL‐20/DNDAP cocrystal using self‐assembly method.…”

“…To date, there are a lot of methods reported for the formation of energetic cocrystals, including ultrasonic spray‐assisted electrostatic adsorption (USEA) , electrospray deposition , spray flash evaporation (SFE),[23] bead milling , and resonant acoustic mixing (RAM) . On the one hand, compared to the traditional solution cocrystallization processes, these new methods afford better quality products with high production yields.…”

Preparation and characteristics of a novel PETN/TKX-50 co-crystal by a solvent/non-solvent method

“…In recent years, quite a lot of energetic cocrystals have been prepared and excellent properties have been obtained. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] J. P. Shen et al prepared a kind of new cocrystal composed of HMX and TATB by the solvent/nonsolvent method at room temperature and the impact sensitivity of the co-crystal explosive was relatively insensitive in contrast to HMX. 17 Bolton et al 18 prepared a kind of co-crystal with a 2 : 1 molar ratio of 2,4,6,8,10,12-hexanitro-2,4,6,8,10,12hexaazaiso-wurtzitane (CL-20) and 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7tetrazacy-clooctane (HMX).…”