Equations of state for the α and γ polymorphs of cyclotrimethylene trinitramine

Equations of state for the alpha and gamma polymorphs of the energetic molecular crystal cyclotrimethylene trinitramine (RDX) have been developed from their Helmholtz free energies. The ion motion contribution to the Helmholtz free energy is represented by Debye models with density-dependent Debye temperatures that are parameterized to vibrational densities of states computed from dispersion-corrected density functional theory. By separating the vibrational density of states into low frequency modes of mainly lattice phonon character and high frequency modes of intramolecular character we were able to significantly improve the description of the heat capacity at low temperatures and the thermal contribution to the pressure. The ion motion contribution to the Helmholtz free energy of the high pressure gamma polymorph was constructed from that of the a polymorph to reproduce the temperature-independent transformation pressure seen experimentally. The static lattice energies for both polymorphs were constructed to reproduce published isothermal compression data. The equations of state have been applied to the prediction of the path of the principal Hugoniot in the equilibrium phase diagram. Published by AIP Publishing.