Chapter 8 - Some molecular and crystalline factors that affect the sensitivities of explosives

Abstract

A major problem in the area of explosives is combining a high level of detonation performance with an acceptably low level of sensitivity to accidental detonation. We discuss three molecular and crystalline factors that are believed to be fundamentally related to impact sensitivity. We emphasize that these factors are not claimed to correlate with sensitivity, but rather to identify general trends. Impact sensitivity tends to increase as (a) there is more free space per molecule in the crystal lattice, (b) the electrostatic potential on the central portion of the molecular surface is more positive, and (c) the heat of detonation is larger. It is shown that moderating the heat of detonation does not necessarily result in poor detonation performance. The effects of various molecular and crystalline features, including substituents, upon impact sensitivity and detonation performance are discussed in detail.