Reactive molecular dynamics simulation of solid nitromethane impact on (010) surfaces induced and nonimpact thermal decomposition

Exploring the thermal decomposition and detonation mechanisms of 2,4-dinitroanisole by TG-FTIR-MS and molecular simulations

2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN), an insensitive explosive, has replaced trinitrotoluene (TNT) in many melt-cast explosives to improve the safety of ammunition and becomes a promising material to desensitize novel explosives of high sensitivity. Here, we combine thermogravimetric-Fourier transform infrared spectrometry-Mass spectrometry (TG-FTIR-MS), density functional theory (DFT), and ReaxFF molecular dynamics (MD) to investigate its thermal decomposition and detonation mechanisms. As revealed by TG-FTIR-MS, the thermal decomposition of DNAN starts at ca. 453 K when highly active NO2 is produced and quickly converted to NO resulting in the formation of a large amount of Ph(OH)(OH2)OCH3+. DFT calculations show that the activation energy of DNAN is higher than that of TNT due to the lack of α-H. Further steps in both thermal decomposition and detonation reactions of the DNAN are dominated by bimolecular O-transfers. ReaxFF MD indicates that DNAN has a lower heat of explosion than TNT, in accordance with the observation that the activation energies of polynitroaromatic explosives are inversely proportional to their heat of explosion. The inactive -OCH3 group and less nitro groups also render DNAN higher thermal stability than TNT.

Determining the mechanical and decomposition properties of high energetic materials (α-RDX, β-HMX, and ε-CL-20) using a neural network potential

Molecular simulations of high energetic materials (HEMs) are limited by efficiency and accuracy. Recently, neural network potential (NNP) models have achieved molecular simulations of millions of atoms while maintaining the accuracy of density functional theory (DFT) levels. Herein, an NNP model covering typical HEMs containing C, H, N, and O elements is developed. The mechanical and decomposition properties of 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX), hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (HMX), and 2,4,6,8,10,12-hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane (CL-20) are determined by employing the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations based on the NNP model. The calculated results show that the mechanical properties of α-RDX, β-HMX, and ε-CL-20 agree with previous experiments and theoretical results, including cell parameters, equations of state, and elastic constants. In the thermal decomposition simulations, it is also found that the initial decomposition reactions of the three crystals are N-NO2 homolysis, corresponding radical intermediates formation, and NO2-induced reactions. This decomposition trajectory is mainly divided into two stages separating from the peak of NO2: pyrolysis and oxidation. Overall, the NNP model for C/H/N/O elements in this work is an alternative reactive force field for RDX, HMX, and CL-20 HEMs, and it opens up new potential for future kinetic study of nitramine explosives.

Initial Decomposition Mechanism of NH3OH+N5- Crystal under Thermal and Shock Loading: A First-Principles Study

NH3OH+N5- is a novel energetic material (EM) which has attracted much interest for its promising performances, including high energy density, high density, low sensitivity, and low toxicity. In this study, the initial decomposition mechanism of NH3OH+N5- crystal was investigated under thermal and shock loading by molecular dynamics simulation. First, programmed heating and constant temperature simulations were carried out by molecular dynamics simulation on the basis of density functional theory (DFT-MD). Results indicated that the initial decomposition reactions of NH3OH+N5- could be described by three reactions: proton transfer, ring-opening reaction, and cation decomposition and recombination, and three pathways of ring-opening reaction were found, including the ring-opening of N5-, HN5, and H2N6. The first two reactions are the main pathways that produce N2 molecules. Furthermore, we carried out DFT-MD simulations to study the shock decomposition behaviors of NH3OH+N5-, and three initial steps were proposed: N5-, HN5, and N6 ring-opening. The fewer N5- and HN5 ring-opening reactions were found during the shock simulation, accompanied by a significant change in the N5- bond angle. What's more, the transition states of decomposition reactions were investigated through quantum chemical calculations. The results revealed that the proton transfer reaction exhibits lower activation barriers compared to ring-opening reactions, and proton transfer would accelerate ring-opening reactions. In addition, the ring-opening reaction is the main energy-releasing reaction in the early stages of the decomposition. This work could promote the comprehension of the decomposition mechanism and energy release regularity of N5- ions.

Triggering the mechanism of the initial reaction of energetic materials under pressure based on Raman intensity analysis

The Raman intensity and other stoichiometric calculations of nitromethane (NM) and 2-nitrimino-5-nitro-hexahydro-1,3,5-triazine (NNHT) have been made by using first-principles density functional theory. We propose a method to judge the initial reaction mechanism of NM and NNHT under pressure based on the Raman intensity. Both the resulting NM and NNHT undergo hydrogen transfer and conventional trigger bond cleavage. And the results obtained from the Raman peak intensities infer a reaction path that is not inferior to the traditional C-NO₂ and N-NO₂ bond cleavage, thus verifying our results.

Pressure and Polymorph Dependent Thermal Decomposition Mechanism of Molecular Materials: A Case of 1,3,5,-Trinitro-1,3,5,-triazine

1,3,5,-Trinitro-1,3,5,-triazine (RDX) serves as an important energetic material and is widely used as various solid propellants and explosives. Understanding the thermal decomposition behaviors of various polymorphs of RDX at high pressure and high temperature is significantly important for safe storage and handling. The present work reveals the early thermal decay mechanisms of two polymorphs (α- and ε-forms) of RDX at high pressure and high temperature by ReaxFF reactive molecular dynamic simulations and climbing image nudged elastic band (CI-NEB) static calculations. It is found that the thermal decomposition rate has positive and negative effects on the pressure for α- and ε-RDX, respectively. This difference originates from the difference of pressure effect on the intermolecular H transfer of the two polymorphs, as we confirm that the bimolecular H transfer rather than the NO₂ partition initiates the decay with a significantly lower energy barrier therein. This finding may be beneficial to understand the pressure and polymorph dependent effect on the decay of RDX and to develop a kinetic model for the combustion of solid RDX.

Decomposition Mechanism of Isoprenoid Hydrocarbon p-Menthane in the Presence of Pt@FGS Nanoparticles: A ReaxFF-MD Study

Pt@FGS nanoparticles have shown effective enhancement in the decomposition of hydrocarbon fuels. To further explore the potential enhancing mechanisms of Pt@FGS nanoparticles, the catalytic decomposition of p-menthane, a bioderived isoprenoid "drop-in" fuel with great promise, is investigated here using the reactive force-field molecular dynamics (ReaxFF-MD) simulations. The results show that the Pt@FGS nanoparticles exhibit good catalytic reactivity with a reduction of the activation energy by nearly 62%. Possible initial reactions of enhanced p-menthane (PMT) decomposition are discussed, which suggests that the supported Pt-cluster plays a key role in the dehydrogenation of PMT, as does the oxygen-containing functional group of the functionalized graphene sheets (FGS). It is also interesting to note that the presence of Pt@FGS causes the initial reactions, which are dominated by H-abstraction, favorable in both kinetics and thermodynamics.

Molecular dynamic insight into octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX) and the nano-HMX decomposition mechanism

The entire decomposition reaction process of a 30 Å HMX nanoparticle at 2000 K by ReaxFF molecular dynamics.

Early thermal decay of energetic hydrogen- and nitro-free furoxan compounds: the case of DNTF and BTF

Exploration of the initial reactions of H-free and nitro-free energetic materials could enrich our understanding of the thermal decomposition mechanism of various energetic materials (EMs). In this work, two furoxan compounds, 3,4-dinitrofurazanfuroxan (DNTF) and benzotrifuroxan (BTF), were investigated to shed light on the decay mechanism of furoxan compounds based on the combination of self-consistent charge density functional tight binding and molecular dynamics simulations. The results show that DNTF and BTF decay via a unimolecular mechanism, and the transformation of the furoxan ring into a nitro group is suggested as a novel initial channel. Five initial steps of DNTF thermal decomposition are observed, including NO₂ loss and the N(O)-O bond cleavage of the central and peripheral rings. The bond cleavage of peripheral rings dominates the decay at low temperatures, while the central ring opening and C-NO₂ dissociation govern the high temperature decay. Besides, NO₂, CO and NO fragments are mainly yielded at high temperatures, while CO₃N₂ is dominant at low temperatures. The three-stage characteristic of the exothermic BTF decay is described under programmed heating conditions for the first time. Four initial steps of BTF thermal decomposition were identified, including furoxan ring opening reactions and the breakage of the 6-membered ring C-C bond. The cleavage of the N(O)-O bond is dominant in the initial step of BTF decomposition under different heating conditions, and the frequency increases with increasing temperature. In addition, the amounts of CON, ON and CO are higher at high temperatures, while C₂O₂N₂ shows an opposite trend. The findings of this work provide deep insights into the complicated sensitivity mechanism of EMs.

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Thermal Decomposition of 3,4-Bis(3-nitrofurazan-4-yl)furoxan

When stimulated, for example, by a high temperature, the physical and chemical properties of energetic materials (EMs) may change, and, in turn, their overall performance is affected. Therefore, thermal stability is crucial for EMs, especially the thermal dynamic behavior. In the past decade, significant efforts have been made to study the thermal dynamic behavior of 3,4-bis(3-nitrofurazan-4-yl)furoxan (DNTF), one of the new high-energy-density materials (HEDMs). However, the thermal decomposition mechanism of DNTF is still not specific or comprehensive. In this study, the self-consistent-charge density-functional tight-binding method was combined with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to reveal the differences in the thermal decomposition of DNTF under four heating conditions. The O-N (O) bond would fracture first during DNTF initial thermal decomposition at medium and low temperatures, thus triggering the cracking of the whole structure. At 2000 and 2500 K, NO₂ loss on outer ring I is the fastest initial thermal decomposition pathway, and it determines that the decomposition mechanism is different from that of a medium-low temperature. NO₂ is found to be the most active intermediate product; large molecular fragments, such as C₂N₂O, are found for the first time. Hopefully, these results could provide some insights into the decomposition mechanism of new HEDMs.

ReaxFF-MPNN machine learning potential: a combination of reactive force field and message passing neural networks

Reactive force field (ReaxFF) is a powerful computational tool for exploring material properties. In this work, we proposed an enhanced reactive force field model, which uses message passing neural networks (MPNN) to compute the bond order and bond energies. MPNN are a variation of graph neural networks (GNN), which are derived from graph theory. In MPNN or GNN, molecular structures are treated as a graph and atoms and chemical bonds are represented by nodes and edges. The edge states correspond to the bond order in ReaxFF and are updated by message functions according to the message passing algorithms. The results are very encouraging; the investigation of the potential, such as the potential energy surface, reaction energies and equation of state, are greatly improved by this simple improvement. The new potential model, called reactive force field with message passing neural networks (ReaxFF-MPNN), is provided as an interface in an atomic simulation environment (ASE) with which the original ReaxFF and ReaxFF-MPNN potential models can do MD simulations and geometry optimizations within the ASE. Furthermore, machine learning, based on an active learning algorithm and gradient optimizer, is designed to train the model. We found that the active learning machine not only saves the manual work to collect the training data but is also much more effective than the general optimizer.

External electric field reduces the explosive sensitivity: a theoretical investigation into the hydrogen transference kinetics of the NH2NO2∙∙∙H2O complex

Controlling the selectivity of detonation initiation reaction to reduce the explosive sensitivity has been a Holy Grail in the field of energetic materials. The effects of the external electric fields on the homolysis of the N-NO₂ bond and initiation reaction dynamics of NH₂NO₂∙∙∙H₂O (i.e., intermolecular and 1,3-intramolecular hydrogen transfers) were investigated at the MP2/6-311++G(2d,p) and CCSD/6-311++G(2d,p)//MP2/6-311++G(2d,p) levels. The results show that the N-NO₂ bond is not the "trigger linkage." The notable transiliences of the activation energy of the intermolecular hydrogen transfer are found with the field strength of - 0.012 a.u. along the -x-direction, leading to the conversion of the main reaction between the intermolecular and 1,3-intramolecular hydrogen transference. The activation energies of two kinds of the hydrogen transferences are increased under the external electric fields along the -y-direction. In particular, due to the conversion of the main reaction, the activation energies of the overall reaction are increased significantly along the -x-direction, leading to the significant reduced explosive sensitivities. Therefore, by controlling the field strengths and orientations between the "reaction axis" and external electric field along the y- and x-directions, the selectivity of the initiation reaction could be controlled and the explosive sensitivity could be reduced. Employing AIM (atoms in molecules) and surface electrostatic potentials, the origin of the control of reaction selectivity and the reduction of sensitivity is revealed. This work is of great significance to the improvement of the technology that the external electric fields are added safely into the energetic material system to enhance the explosive performance. Graphical abstract.

Anisotropic hydrogen bond structures and orientation dependence of shock sensitivity in crystalline 1,3,5-tri-amino-2,4,6-tri-nitrobenzene (TATB)

The orientation dependence of shock sensitivity in high explosive crystals was explored in this study. As a widely used wood explosive, 1,3,5-tri-amino-2,4,6-tri-nitrobenzene (TATB) is insensitive to thermal ignition and mechanical impact. Its typical anisotropic crystal structure suggests anisotropic shock sensitivity. Shockwaves were applied to an incised TATB crystal along three orthogonal directions using the multiscale shock technique (MSST) combined with the ReaxFF method to study the origin of anisotropic shock sensitivity. The physical and chemical responses of the TATB crystal during shock were investigated. The results show that the temperature, stress, volume compressibility, and decomposition rate of TATB are strongly dependent on the shockwave direction. In other words, the sensitivity of TATB to mechanical shock is strongly dependent on the crystal orientation. TATB is relatively sensitive along the directions parallel to the (001) crystal plane (X and Y directions) and is highly insensitive along the [001] direction (Z direction). We calculated the energy of intermolecular hydrogen bonds and the elastic constants of the TATB crystal using ab initio simulations, which also show anisotropy. We found that the unique structure of intermolecular hydrogen bonds and the difference in temperature rise induced by orientation-related compressibility are primarily responsible for the anisotropic shock wave sensitivity.

Comparison study of carbon clusters formation during thermal decomposition of 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene and benzotrifuroxan: a ReaxFF based sequential molecular dynamics simulation

Carbon rich clusters are usually found after the detonation of explosives, which greatly hinder their further decomposition into small molecules. A comparison study of thermal decomposition and clusters formation between 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB) and benzotrifuroxan (BTF) crystals was conducted to uncover the mechanisms behind their distinct differences in sensitivity and reaction violence, which has not been investigated in detail. The simulations of heating at 3500 K, then expansion and cooling were conducted through reactive molecular dynamics using the ReaxFF-lg force field. As a result, the initial low decay rate indicates that TATB is more stable than BTF under high temperatures, while once ignited it decays faster than BTF. Nevertheless, BTF decomposes more completely with a higher potential energy release, a greater amount of final products, and higher reaction frequencies, and shows higher reaction violence than TATB. More and heavier clusters occur in TATB crystals compared with those in BTF. Large clusters form during the heating process and then partly dissociate during expansion and cooling. A faster cooling rate facilitates larger clusters formation. Graphitic geometries as well as carbon rings and carbon chains are common in the stable clusters. Besides, further simulations show that a lower heating temperature facilitates larger clusters formation both in TATB and BTF. Our results are expected to deepen the insight into the mechanisms of carbon clusters formation and the different performances of TATB and BTF.

A systematic study of the surface structures and energetics of CH3NO2 surfaces by first-principles calculations

Density functional theory (DFT) has been employed within the generalized gradient approximation and Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof functional (GGA-PBE) to study the structural and electronic properties of nitromethane (NM) surface models. Different surfaces, including (100), (001), (101), (110), and (111), are considered in this work. The corresponding properties of bulk crystal for NM were also calculated to form a contrast to the slab models. Results with anisotropic characteristics of different surfaces have been observed in this study. There was an obviously great anisotropy in electronic parameters, especially the band gaps of different surfaces, indicating the anisotropic impact sensitivity along different directions of NM. The band gap value for (111) surface, 2.687 eV, was smaller than that of other surfaces, showing a higher impact sensitivity for NM. The estimated anisotropy has been revealed in surface energies for different surfaces. Graphical Abstract The valence band minimum (VBM) and conduction band maximum (CBM) of the nitromethane (100), (001), (101), (110) and (111) surface models.

Reversible intramolecular hydrogen transfer: a completely new mechanism for low impact sensitivity of energetic materials

The intramolecular H transfer of energetic NO₂-compounds has been recognized as a possible primary step in triggering molecular decomposition for a long time.

Effects of different dopant elements on structures, electronic properties, and sensitivity characteristics of nitromethane

In this study, the doped defects in nitromethane crystals were investigated using first-principles calculations for the first time. We introduce dopant atoms in the interstitial sites of the nitromethane lattice, aiming to study the effects of element-doping on the structural properties, electronic properties, and sensitivity characteristics. The obtained results show that doped defects obviously affect the neighboring nitromethane molecules. The modification of electronic properties shows that the band gaps are significantly influenced by doped defects. Partial density of states and population analysis further reveal the mechanism for sensitivity control of nitromethane. It is shown that the new electronic states were introduced in the forbidden bands and the doped defects resulted in charge redistributions in the systems. Graphical abstract The valence and conduction band edge positions as well as defect levels of pure and X-doped NM.

Structural Rearrangement of Energetic Materials under an External Electric Field: A Case Study of Nitromethane

As a significant stimulus, the external electric field (EEF) can change the decomposition mechanism and energy release of energetic materials (EMs). Hence, understanding the response of EMs to an EEF is greatly meaningful for their safe usage. Herein, the structural arrangement, a crucial factor in the impact sensitivity and detonation performance of EMs, under the EEF ranging from 0.0 to 0.5 V/Å was investigated via molecular dynamics simulation. Nitromethane (NM) was taken as a case study due to the simple structure. The simulation results show that there exists a critical EEF strength between 0.2 and 0.3 V/Å, which can induce the transition of NM molecules from relatively disordered distribution to solidlike ordered and compacted arrangement with a large density. In this ordered structure, NM dipoles are aligned in a head-to-tail pattern parallel to the EEF direction because of the favored dipole-dipole interactions and weak C-H···O hydrogen bonds. As the EEF strength is enhanced, the potential energy and cohesive energy density of the NM system gradually decrease and increase, respectively, indicative of high thermodynamics stability of ordered arrangement. The results reported here also shed light on the potential of the EEF to induce the nucleation and crystallization to explore new polymorphs of EMs.

A dynamic prediction of stability for nitromethane in external electric field

Adding an external electric field into an energetic material system can increase the energy but the stability may be reduced.

Controlling cross pumping between C-N and C-H vibration in nitromethane by selective fluorescence-enhanced stimulated Raman scattering

To investigate the vibrational features of nitromethane (NM), which is a kind of energy material and a well known low-sensitivity and high explosive, experiments are performed to obtain the stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) of NM by employing a 532 nm pulsed pump laser. The Raman signal involves two stimulated emissions at 918 and 2,963 cm^-1, attributed to the C-N and C-H stretching vibrations, respectively. To overcome the complexity of cross pump in the pure NM, one stimulated Raman radiation is chosen as a pump source to excite the other Raman mode. Two fluorescence dyes were added to selectively enhance each Raman cross section. By internally seeding the Raman gain medium with fluorescent photons, a significant modification in the stimulated Raman scattering spectrum has been observed. The enhanced Stokes emission at 918 cm^-1 was able to induce the 2,963 cm^-1 vibration mode when the all-trans-β-carotene was internal seeding in the NM, while the Raman radiation at 2,963 cm^-1 was enhanced to excite the C-N mode with the addition of m-Cresol purple. The output energy of both 918 and 2,963 cm^-1 under different input energy was also measured to illustrate this result.

A dynamics prediction of nitromethane → methyl nitrite isomerization in external electric field

As a follow-up to our investigation into the effect of external electric field on the chemical bond strength, the effects of external electric field on the CH3NO2 → CH3ONO isomerization dynamics were investigated using the MP2/6-311++G(2d,p) and CCSD/6-311++G(2d,p) methods. The rate constants in the absence and presence of various field strengths were calculated. The results show that, when the field strength is larger than +0.0060 a.u. along the C-NO2 bond axis, the barriers of the isomerization are lower than the C-NO2 bond dissociation energies, leading to the preferences of the isomerization over the C-NO2 bond dissociation. In this case, the sensitivities are higher than that in no field. However, in the other fields, the C-NO2 bond scission is favored and the sensitivities are almost equal to that in no field. Several good linear correlations are found between the field strengths and the changes of the bond lengths or corresponding electron densities.

Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Study on Nonequilibrium Reaction Pathways in the Photolysis of Solid Nitromethane (CH3NO2) and D3-Nitromethane (CD3NO2)

Thin films of nitromethane (CH3NO2) along with its isotopically labeled counterpart D3-nitromethane (CD3NO2) were photolyzed at discrete wavelength between 266 nm (4.7 eV) and 121 nm (10.2 eV) to explore the underlying mechanisms involved in the decomposition of model compounds of energetic materials in the condensed phase at 5 K. The chemical modifications of the ices were traced in situ via electron paramagnetic resonance, thus focusing on the detection of (hitherto elusive) reaction intermediates and products with unpaired electrons. These studies revealed the formation of two carbon-centered radicals [methyl (CH3), nitromethyl (CH2NO2)], one oxygen-centered radical [methoxy (CH3O)], two nitrogen-centered radicals [nitrogen monoxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2)], as well as atomic hydrogen (H). The decomposition products of these channels and the carbon-centered nitromethyl (CH2NO2) radical in particular represent crucial reaction intermediates leading via sequential molecular mass growth processes in the exposed nitromethane samples to complex organic molecules as predicted previously by dynamics calculations. The detection of the nitromethyl (CH2NO2) radical along with atomic hydrogen (H) demonstrated the existence of a high-energy decomposition pathway, which is closed under collisionless conditions in the gas phase.

A theoretical prediction of the possible trigger linkage of CH3NO2 and NH2NO2 in an external electric field

The effects of an external electric field on the C/N-NO2 bond with C/N-H and N-O bonds in CH3NO2 or NH2NO2 were compared using the DFT-B3LYP and MP2 methods with the 6-311++G(2d,p) and aug-cc-pVTZ basis sets. The results show that such fields have a minor effect on the C-N or C-H bond but a major effect on the N-O bond in CH3NO2, while in NH2NO2 electric fields affect the N-N bond greatly but the N-O or N-H bond only slightly. Thus, in CH3NO2, oxygen transfer or unimolecular isomerization to methyl nitrite might precede breaking of the C-N bond in the initial stages of decomposition, and the N-O bond could be the trigger bond in electric fields. In NH2NO2, however, N-N bond rupture may be preferential in an electric field and, consequently, the N-N bond might always be the real trigger bond. Atoms in molecules and natural bond orbital delocalization analyses, together with examination of shifts in electron density and frequencies support the above viewpoints. Forty-eight good linear correlations were found along the different field orientations at different levels of theory, including those between field strength (E) and changes in N-O/N-N bond length (ΔR N-O/N-N), ρ (N-O/N-N) values [Δρ (N-O/N-N), or stretching frequencies of the N-O/N-N bond (ΔυN-O/N-N). Graphical Abstract External electric fields have a major effect on the N-O or N-N bond inCH3NO2 or NH2NO2 , leading to a possible N-O trigger bond inCH3NO2 or a real N-N trigger bond in NH2NO2 in an electric field.

Effect of electronic excitation to intermolecular proton transfer in bulk nitromethane: Tuned parameter SCC-DFTB and first principles study

To understand the reaction mechanism involving hydrogen transfers through hydrogen-bond bridge, we carried out both Self-Consistent Charge Density Functional Tight-Binding (SCC-DFTB) calculations of bulk nitromethane and Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations of singlet ground state/triplet excited state molecular nitromethane using B3LYP functional. Firstly, we tuned the repulsive parameters of the SCC-DFTB method for nitromethane with dataset calculated from DFT at B3LYP/6-311g level. The molecular dynamics simulations are carried out with tuned parameters to get the dynamical properties of the bulk nitromethane, and the static calculations are intended to give energy profile of the reaction process. These calculations indicate the excitation of nitromethane molecule making the proton transfer reactions possible, and lowering the reaction barrier.

Theoretical study of the reaction mechanism of CH₃NO₂ with NO₂, NO and CO: the bimolecular reactions that cannot be ignored

The intriguing decompositions of nitro-containing explosives have been attracting interest. While theoretical investigations have long been concentrated mainly on unimolecular decompositions, bimolecular reactions have received little theoretical attention. In this paper, we investigate theoretically the bimolecular reactions between nitromethane (CH3NO2)-the simplest nitro-containing explosive-and its decomposition products, such as NO2, NO and CO, that are abundant during the decomposition process of CH3NO2. The structures and potential energy surface (PES) were explored at B3LYP/6-31G(d), B3P86/6-31G(d) and MP2/6-311 + G(d,p) levels, and energies were refined using CCSD(T)/cc-pVTZ methods. Quantum chemistry calculations revealed that the title reactions possess small barriers that can be comparable to, or smaller than, that of the initial decomposition reactions of CH3NO2. Considering that their reactants are abundant in the decomposition process of CH3NO2, we consider bimolecular reactions also to be of great importance, and worthy of further investigation. Moreover, our calculations show that NO2 can be oxidized by CH3NO2 to NO3 radical, which confirms the conclusion reached formerly by Irikura and Johnson [(2006) J Phys Chem A 110:13974-13978] that NO3 radical can be formed during the decomposition of nitramine explosives.

Lyman α photolysis of solid nitromethane (CH3NO2) and D3-nitromethane (CD3NO2) – untangling the reaction mechanisms involved in the decomposition of model energetic materials

Solid nitromethane and D3-nitromethane ices were exposed to Lyman α photons to investigate the mechanism involved in the decomposition of energetic materials in the condensed phase.

Cluster evolution during the early stages of heating explosives and its relationship to sensitivity: a comparative study of TATB, β-HMX and PETN by molecular reactive force field simulations

The clustering mechanism of heating TATB, HMX and PETN was strongly influenced by their oxygen balance and was related to their sensitivity.

Thermal decomposition of solid phase nitromethane under various heating rates and target temperatures based on ab initio molecular dynamics simulations

The Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulation was applied to study the thermal decomposition of solid phase nitromethane under gradual heating and fast annealing conditions. In gradual heating simulations, we found that, rather than C-N bond cleavage, intermolecular proton transfer is more likely to be the first reaction in the decomposition process. At high temperature, the first reaction in fast annealing simulation is intermolecular proton transfer leading to CH3NOOH and CH2NO2, whereas the initial chemical event at low temperature tends to be a unimolecular C-N bond cleavage, producing CH3 and NO2 fragments. It is the first time to date that the direct rupture of a C-N bond has been reported as the first reaction in solid phase nitromethane. In addition, the fast annealing simulations on a supercell at different temperatures are conducted to validate the effect of simulation cell size on initial reaction mechanisms. The results are in qualitative agreement with the simulations on a unit cell. By analyzing the time evolution of some molecules, we also found that the time of first water molecule formation is clearly sensitive to heating rates and target temperatures when the first reaction is an intermolecular proton transfer.