A novel cocrystal composed of CL-20 and an energetic ionic salt

Abstract

A novel nitroamine/energetic ionic salt cocrystal explosive containing CL-20 and 1-AMTN in a 1 : 1 molar ratio is presented. The structure of this cocrystal is determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD). The predicted detonation performance is slightly higher than that of RDX, a state-of-the-art explosive. In small-scale impact drop tests, the cocrystal exhibits a surprisingly low sensitivity relative to CL-20. These features make this cocrystal a very promising explosive to replace RDX.