New energetic compounds for DOE and DOD weapon applications are synthesized from the milligram to multi-kilogram scale in HEAF and at the Site 300 scale-up facility. Our research efforts include the synthesis of new insensitive energetic compounds such as LLM-105, highly energetic compounds with more power than HMX for propellant and explosive applications, high-nitrogen energetic compounds as gas generators and burn rate modifiers for gun propellants and the development of new synthetic methodologies such as the use of Vicarious Nucleophilic Substitution of hydrogen as a method to synthesize TATB.
New formulations of energetic materials for DOD and DOE weapon applications are created from the gram to multi-kilogram scale in HEAF and at Site 300. Our capabilities include slurry coating of energetic compounds to form plastic bonded explosives, cast-cure formulations, spray-coating formulations for certain applications and melt-cast formulations. We also investigate the use of new polymers to produce formulations with better mechanical properties and thermal stability.
