A low sensitivity energetic cocrystal of ammonium pentazolate

ABSTRACT

A new cyclo-pentazolate anion-based energetic cocrystal NH₄N₅ · 1/6NH₄Cl was synthesized. The structure, thermal behavior, sensitivity, and detonation properties of NH₄N₅ · 1/6NH₄Cl were studied. Cube-shaped NH₄N₅ · 1/6NH₄Cl crystallizes in the Fd-3 m space group, and is formed by hydrogen bonding interactions. DSC-TG-MS combined techniques show that NH₄N₅ · 1/6NH₄Cl has better thermal stability than NH₄N₅. The cocrystal exhibits low impact and friction sensitivity, and largely reduces the mechanical sensitivity of NH₄N₅. Furthermore, the cocrystal is predicted to have a detonation velocity of about 8.3 km s⁻¹ and a detonation pressure of about 21.4 GPa, respectively, indicating excellent detonation performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Energetic material
• cyclo-pentazolate anion
• cocrystal
• crystal structure
• sensitivity

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21771108) to provide fund for conducting experiments. They thank Dr. W. Wei (Testing center, Yangzhou University) for testing of Raman spectra; Prof. L. Yuan (Testing center, Yangzhou University) for testing of SEM and EDX; Prof. W. Tang (Analysis and Testing Center, Nanjing University of Science and Technology) for testing of IR spectra; R. Wang (NETZSCH Scientific Instruments Trading (Shanghai) Ltd.) for testing of DSC-TG-MS combined techniques; Z. Zhang (Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Y. Yin (Microspectrum Technology Co., Ltd.) for testing of single-crystal structures; and Prof. K. O. Christe (University of Southern California) for helpful discussions.

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Supplementary Material

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Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [21771108].