Ultrasonic-assisted emulsion synthesis of well-distributed spherical composite CL-20@PNA with enhanced high sensitivity

A novel spherical composite explosive of 2,4,6,8,10,12-hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane and p-nitroaniline (CL-20@PNA) in a molar ratio of 1:1 has been prepared by ultrasonic-assisted emulsion method. Then, the shape, structure, and thermodynamic behaviours of the spherical composite CL-20@PNA was characterized by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Differential scanning calorimetery (DSC). The SEM results indicate that the composite CL-20@PNA are relatively uniform with an average particle size of micron, and the morphology is spherical. XRD analyses confirm that the spherical composite CL-20@PNA has some peak patterns with large differences from CL-20 and PNA. FT-IR spectra suggest that hydrogen-bonding interactions may exist between CL-20 and PNA molecules. Thermal analysis shows that the spherical composite CL-20@PNA has excellent thermal stability. Moreover, an impact sensitivity test indicates that the sensitivity of the spherical composite CL-20@PNA is sufficiently reduced relative to CL-20 and CL-20/PNA physical mixing, which data is up to 60.1 cm.