Microscopic Calculations of Hugoniot Curves of Neat Triaminotrinitrobenzene (TATB) and of Its Detonation Products

Predicted detonation properties at the Chapman-Jouguet state for proposed energetic materials (MTO and MTO3N) from combined ReaxFF and quantum mechanics reactive dynamics

The development of new energetic materials (EMs) with improved detonation performance but low sensitivity and environmental impact is of considerable importance for applications in civilian and military fields. Often new designs are difficult to synthesize so predictions of performance in advance is most valuable. Examples include MTO (2,4,6-triamino-1,3,5-triazine-1,3,5-trioxide) and MTO3N (2,4,6-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine-1,3,5-trioxide) suggested by Klapötke as candidate EMs but not yet successfully synthesized. We propose and apply to these materials a new approach, RxMD(cQM), in which ReaxFF Reactive Molecular Dynamics (RxMD) is first used to predict the reaction products and thermochemical properties at the Chapman Jouguet (CJ) state for which the system is fully reacted and at chemical equilibrium. Quantum mechanics dynamics (QMD) is then applied to refine the pressure of the ReaxFF predicted CJ state to predict a more accurate final CJ point, leading to a very practical calculation that includes accurate long range vdW interactions needed for accurate pressure. For MTO, this RxMD(cQM) method predicts a detonation pressure of P_CJ = 40.5 GPa and a detonation velocity of D_CJ = 8.8 km s^-1, while for MTO3N it predicts P_CJ = 39.9 GPa and D_CJ = 8.4 km s^-1, making them comparable to HMX (P_CJ = 39.5 GPa, D_CJ = 9.1 km s^-1) and worth synthesizing. This first-principles-based RxMD(cQM) methodology provides an excellent compromise between computational cost and accuracy including the formation of clusters that burn too slowly, providing a practical mean of assessing detonation performances for novel candidate EMs. This RxMD(cQM) method that links first principles atomistic molecular dynamics simulations with macroscopic properties to promote in silico design of new EMs should also be of general applicability to materials synthesis and processing.

Explosives in the Cage: Metal-Organic Frameworks for High-Energy Materials Sensing and Desensitization

An overview of the current status of coordination polymers and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) pertaining to the field of energetic materials is provided. The explosive applications of MOFs are discussed from two aspects: one for detection of explosives, and the other for explosive desensitization. By virtue of their adjustable pore/cage sizes, high surface area, tunable functional sites, and rich host-guest chemistry, MOFs have emerged as promising candidates for both explosive sensing and desensitization. The challenges and perspectives in these two areas are thoroughly discussed, and the processing methods for practical applications are also discussed briefly.

Nanocarbon condensation in detonation

We analyze the definition of the Gibbs free energy of a nanoparticle in a reactive fluid environment, and propose an approach for predicting the size of carbon nanoparticles produced by the detonation of carbon-rich explosives that regards their condensation as a nucleation process and takes into account absolute entropy effects of the cluster population. The results are consistent with experimental observations and indicate that such entropy considerations are important for determining chemical equilibrium states in energetic materials that contain an excess of carbon. The analysis may be useful for other applications that deal with the nucleation of nanoparticles under reactive conditions.

Prediction of the Chapman–Jouguet chemical equilibrium state in a detonation wave from first principles based reactive molecular dynamics

This Rx2CJ first principle based protocol for predicting the CJ state provides the matching point between atomistic reaction dynamic simulations and the macroscopic properties of detonation, and can be used as a measure of performance for in silico synthesis and characterization of new materials.