Browsing by Author "McAteer, D."

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    Compatibility assessment of thermoplastic formulations
    (2016-07-01) McAteer, D.; Weaver, M.; Blair, L. H.; Flood, N.; Gaulter, S. E.
    Prior to the large-scale preparation of any new chemical formulation an assessment of the potential reactivity between the components must be carried out. This practice, which is common to many fields including pharmaceutical science, is particularly essential in the case of energetic formulations whose chemical incompatibility may result in an unexpected and potentially explosive decomposition. The common method used to investigate incompatibility is to heat 1:1 (w/w) formulations and evaluate the variation in their thermal stability with respect to the neat, pristine explosive. The techniques used are: differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), vacuum stability and heat flow calorimetry. As trends in energetics move towards safer formulations the components are more commonly selected for their high thermal stability and low sensitivity to initiation. However, recently prepared thermoplastic formulations which incorporate a thermally stable explosive, 2,2’,4,4’,6,6’-hexanitrostilbene (HNS II), and a selection of high-melting-point thermoplastics produced anomalous results during their compatibility assessment leading to the suggestion that historical tests originally devised for less thermally stable materials, such as N,N’,N’’-trinitro-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane (RDX), may not be directly transferable to the newer generations of insensitive explosive formulations.
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    Nitration of primary amines to form primary nitramines (Review)
    (2016-07-04) McAteer, D.; Pons, Jean-François; Wilson, I. I.; Cavaye, H.
    The nitration of primary amines to form primary nitramines is a rarely reported synthetic procedure which proceeds through a minimum of two steps. This is in stark contrast to the nitration of alcohols and secondary amines which is readily achievable by a number of methods in a single step. In general the primary amine must initially be activated to nitration as direct exposure to nitrating media tends to result in the formation of an ionic nitrate salt. This activation may be achieved through the use of a multitude of protecting groups that are stable to the nitrating conditions used thereafter. The review presented here is an attempt to bring together the published literature on this often overlooked synthetic procedure in energetic materials chemistry.