FOX-7 derived nitramines: Novel propellants and oxidizers for solid rocket propulsion

A variety of amine derivatives was found to react with FOX-7 to give triazine derivatives, which upon nitration gave rearranged nitramines in good to excellent yields. The structures of these triazines and nitramines were determined by various spectroscopic techniques, and elemental analyses. Further the structure of selected compounds namely 4-(dinitromethylene)-1-methyl-1,3,5-triazinane (8a), 4-(((methyl(nitro)amino)methyl) imino)-3,5-dinitro-5,6-dihydro-4H-1,2 & lambda;4,5-oxadiazin-2-olate (9a) and 3,5-dinitro-4-(((nitro(2-(nitrooxy)ethyl) amino)-methyl)imino)-5,6-dihydro-4H-1,2 & lambda;4,5-oxadiazin-2-olate (9b) were unambiguously confirmed by single crystal X-ray analysis. These compounds have good thermal stabilities with their decomposition temperatures in the range of 119-188 degrees C and experimental densities between 1.38 g cm-3 to 1.75 g cm � 3. The enthalpies of formation of the new compounds were calculated (Gaussian-03) and combined with their experimental densities to evaluate the propulsive and detonation properties. Compounds 9a and b are found to have excellent energetic properties (9a P = 31.48 GPa, D = 8542 m/s; 9b, P = 31.83 GPa, D = 8518 m/s) that exceed those of TNT, HNS and are comparable to FOX-7 and RDX. The potential of these compounds as solid propellants/oxidizers was explored in detail; compounds (9a, Isp,vac 290.74 s; 9b, Isp,vac 293.00 s; with AP, Isp,vac 291.66 s (9a) and Isp,vac 292.57 s (9b)) were found to be suitable oxidizers for solid rocket propulsion.

Automated summary

A variety of amine derivatives have been found to react with FOX-7, resulting in the formation of triazine derivatives that can be nitrated to produce rearranged nitramines in high yields. The structures of these compounds were determined using spectroscopic techniques, elemental analyses, and single crystal X-ray analysis. The synthesized compounds exhibited good thermal stabilities and were found to have excellent energetic properties, making them suitable candidates for solid rocket propulsion.