Evaluation of a CL-20/TATB Energetic Co-crystal

Exploration of novel energetic-energetic co-crystals has greatly increased in recent years as the need for energetic materials with improved detonation performance and reduced sensitivity continues to grow. In 2015 a CL-20/TATB co-crystal was reported and touted sensitivity and detonation properties that would make it a potential replacement for the industry standard HMX. The confirmation, reproducibility, and characterization of energetic materials are still a widely debated topic especially when the material of interest has exceptional properties. In this work, CL-20/TATB co-crystals are attempted via solvent-nonsolvent (S/NS) cocrystallization to assess the formation of a true co-crystal. The prepared crystals were characterized via scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder x-ray diffraction (PXRD), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). This work reproduced S/NS cocrystallization similar to that reported in 2015, provides a solubility and thermodynamic explanation behind CL-20/TATB cocrystallization, and assesses the future viability of CL-20/TATB crystals.