Hydrolysis of hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane (CL-20)

Julius Pavlov, Christos Christodoulatos, Mohammed Sidhoum, Steven Nicolich, Wendy Balas, Agamemnon Koutsospyros

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

The hydrolysis of the α, β, and ε polymorphs of 2,4,6,8,10,12-hexanitro-2,4,6,8,10,12-hexaazaisowurtzitane(CL-20) was investigated in dilute buffered aqueous solutions over a pH range of 4-10 and at 35, 43, 50, 58 and 65°C, with starting concentrations of CL-20 at one half the solubility limit for the respective temperature. In all cases, an overall first-order kinetic behavior was observed. The rate constants, half-lives, activation energies, and Arrhenius pre-exponential factors were determined. The latter was found to vary linearly with pH. Based on these findings, general formulas for the hydrolysis kinetics of the three polymorphs were developed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-18
Number of pages18
JournalJournal of Energetic Materials
Volume25
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2007

Keywords

  • Arrhenius equation
  • CL-20
  • HNIW
  • Hydrolysis
  • Kinetics
  • Polymorphs

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