(564c) Synthesis and Characterization of CL-20/Oxidant Crystals

While the discovery of novel energetic compounds has slowed, the desire for energetic materials with improved detonation performance and reduced sensitivity has not. CL-20 is currently the highest performing energetic material available, but has yet to see widespread applications due to sensitivity and production concerns. Cocrystallization has emerged as a valid method of achieving tunable energetic properties without significant reduction in energetic performance and has been in utilized in a variety of energetic combinations. In this work, several CL-20-oxidant crystals are synthesized via slow evaporation. The resulting crystals were characterized via scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to assess their physical and chemical properties. The overall applicability, performance and scalability of energetic-oxidant materials is discussed.