Toward low-sensitive and high-energetic cocrystal I: evaluation of the power and the safety of observed energetic cocrystals

Abstract

Energetic cocrystals are attracting increasing attention in the field of energetic materials. To low-sensitive and high energetic materials, we provide the evaluations of power and safety of 41 observed binary energetic cocrystals, by studying their densities (d), oxygen balances (OB), explosive properties and crystal morphologies with the aid of theoretical calculations. The results show that: the power is diluted but the safety may be improved after cocrystallization in contrast to the more energetic pure component; the cocrystallization mediates the OB of the composing pure components, as well as d with some exceptions sometimes, and it can alter crystal shapes relative to pure energetic components involved. Some qualitative even quantitative corrections of these cocrystals are obtained to verify the factors influencing the power and the safety, leading to some specifications of d and OB (d_298K ≥ 1.78 g cm⁻³ and −100% ≤ OB ≤ −50% regarding V_D ≥ 8.5 km s⁻¹ and H₅₀ ≥ 50 cm), a procedure and some suggestions for designing low sensitive high energetic cocrystals.