Effects of Grain Refinement and Thermal Aging on Atomic Scale Local Structures of Ultra-Fine Explosives by X-ray Total Scattering

Abstract

The atomic scale local structures affect the initiation performance of ultra-fine explosives according to the stimulation results of hot spot formation. However, the experimental characterization of local structures in ultra-fine explosives has been rarely reported, due to the difficulty in application of characterization methods having both high resolution in and small damage to unstable organic explosive materials. In this work, X-ray total scattering was explored to investigate the atomic scale local distortion of two widely applicable ultra-fine explosives, LLM-105 and HNS. The experimental spectra of atomic pair distribution function (PDF) derived from scattering results were fitted by assuming rigid ring structures in molecules. The effects of grain refinement and thermal aging on the atomic scale local structure were investigated, and the changes in both the length of covalent bonds have been identified. Results indicate that by decreasing the particle size of LLM-105 and HNS from hundreds of microns to hundreds of nanometers, the crystal structures remain, whereas the molecular configuration slightly changes and the degree of structural disorder increases. For example, the average length of covalent bonds in LLM-105 reduces from 1.25 Å to 1.15 Å, whereas that in HNS increases from 1.25 Å to 1.30 Å, which is possibly related to the incomplete crystallization process and internal stress. After thermal aging of ultra-fine LLM-105 and HNS, the degree of structural disorder decreases, and the distortion in molecules formed in the synthesis process gradually healed. The average length of covalent bonds in LLM-105 increases from 1.15 Å to 1.27 Å, whereas that in HNS reduces from 1.30 Å to 1.20 Å. The possible reason is that the atomic vibration in the molecule intensifies during the heat aging treatment, and the internal stress was released through changes in molecular configuration, and thus the atomic scale distortion gradually heals. The characterization method and findings in local structures obtained in this work may pave the path to deeply understand the relationship between the defects and performance of ultra-fine explosives.