The thermal decomposition and ignition of high-performance high explosives occur via a mechanism where the solid phase sublimes parent molecules decompose rapidly in gas to form unstable charged intermediates. These intermediates continue react final products release energy do work. We have observed that presence electromagnetic significantly reduces temperature common explosive, data suggest t...

Klapötke and co-workers recently designed two new materials, 2,4,6-triamino-1,3,5-triazine-1,3,5-trioxide (MTO) and 2,4,6-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine-1,3,5-trioxide (MTO3N), envisioned as candidates for green highenergy materials. However, all attempts at synthesis have failed. In order to validate the expected properties for these systems and to determine why these materials are too unstable to sy...

Time-domain terahertz spectroscopy (TDTS) has been shown to be a promising tool in detection of explosives and explosive related compounds. To date, TDTS for many explosives has been limited to spectral regions <3 THz. With recent improvements in emitters and sensors of THz radiation, we report the THz absorption spectra over an extended frequency band from 0.5 to 6 THz for four explosives: RDX...

Clustering is experimentally and theoretically verified during the complicated processes involved in heating high explosives, and has been thought to influence their detonation properties. However, a detailed description of the clustering that occurs has not been fully elucidated. We used molecular dynamic simulations with an improved reactive force field, ReaxFF_lg, to carry out a comparative ...

In this work we evaluate the influence of thermal desorber temperature on the analytical response of a swipe-based thermal desorption ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) for detection of trace explosives. IMS response for several common high explosives ranging from 0.1 ng to 100 ng was measured over a thermal desorber temperature range from 60 °C to 280 °C. Most of the explosives examined demonstra...

Terahertz range of electromagnetic spectrum (0.1 ÷ 10) THz has focused attention of scientists for years because of many interesting features including existence of spectral fingerprints of many materials (also explosives), through clothing imaging and safety for human being. Such advantages are of great importance for biochemical, defense and security related applications. Scanning of pure exp...

The microstructure of plastic bonded explosives (PBXs) is known to influence behavior during mechanical deformation, but characterizing the microstructure can be challenging. For example, the explosive crystals and binder in formulations such as PBX 9501 do not have sufficient X-ray contrast to obtain three-dimensional data by in situ, absorption contrast imaging. To address this difficulty, we...

This work investigates the stability of trace (tens of nanograms) deposits of six explosives: erythritol tetranitrate (ETN), pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX), cyclotetramethylenetetranitramine (HMX), 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), and 2,4,6-trinitrophenylmethylnitramine (tetryl) to determine environmental stabilities and lifetimes of trace level materials. ...

Waveguide terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is used to characterize the temperature dependent vibrational properties of three threat-related materials: 4-amino-dinitrotoluene (4A-DNT), pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), and octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX). These materials are characterized as thin polycrystalline layers deposited in the 50 micron gap of a met...