US Government as Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Stevens Institute of Technology

Hongwei Qiu

Victor Stepanov

Rajen B Patel

Woo Young Lee

Anthony DiStasio

Reddy Damavarapu

Alexander Paraskos

Paul E Anderson

Ashok Surapaneni

Thomas A Bechtold

Chris Pizzo

Lihn Tung Le

Ruslan Mudryy

A method for manufacturing nano-sized insensitive high explosive molding powder usable as a booster HE is provided herein. The method preferably involving the steps of dissolving a binder in a liquid and suspending crystalline high explosive to said liquid, grinding that suspension in a bead mill until the crystalline high explosive is nano-sized, and precipitating the binder and crystalline high explosive using a spray dryer to produce granules containing nano-sized crystalline high explosive. The liquid may be water or an organic solvent so long as the binder is highly soluble in the liquid and the crystalline high explosive is generally insoluble in the liquid. A fatty alcohol, water defoaming/dispersant/surfactant agent can be added to the dissolved binder/suspended crystalline high explosive, to aid in the manufacturability.

Bead milled spray dried nano-explosive

Stabilized, amorphous high energetic compositions having crystallization inhibiting polymers dispersed throughout the solid composition. The compositions disclosed herein are an improvement over crystalline high energetic compositions in that such disclosed compositions are stable and possess physical properties desirable in propellant and high explosive applications.

Amorphous energetics

A method for the manufacture of stable amorphous secondary explosives and combinations thereof&#x2014;wherein the stability is enhanced with the addition of a polymeric additives and can be further enhanced with mechanical compression of the amorphous material.

Method for manufacture of amorphous energetics

A method of manufacturing a CL-20/HMX cocrystalline explosive which is coated in a polymeric binder, so as to be useful as an explosive molding powder. The cocrystalline material having a desirable average crystal size of from about 300 nm to about 1000 nm, which crystals are intimately coated with a polymeric binder and are produced as granular agglomerates that are less than on average 5 microns in size, and which crystals are relatively easy and safe to handle, transport, store and use. The method involving spray drying a CL-20 and HMX solvent solution containing a polymeric binder to form an intermediary amorphous material&#x2014;which intermediary is then heated to cocrystallize the CL-20/HMX into the desired size cocrystals and aggregates thereof&#x2014;which are coated in said polymeric binder.

Nanoscale cocrystalline explosives

A safe and simple method for synthesizing insensitive nano-size cocrystals of high explosive materials such as HMX and Cl-20 by suspending the explosive materials in a nonsolvent solution and bead milling the solution.

Single-step production method for nano-sized energetic cocrystals by bead milling and products thereof

Granules of graphene oxide may be produced from a dispersion of nanoscale graphene oxide sheets by a spray drying method. Such granules have a three-dimensional corrugated morphology. The complexity of the corrugations, and the size distribution of the granules can be varied through selection of the spray-drying equipment used, and variation of the composition of the dispersion and the spray-drying parameters. Structural modifiers may be included in the graphene oxide dispersion to control the ultimate morphology of the granules. The granules of graphene oxide may be thermally reduced at a moderate temperature of 220&#xb0; C. to increase the granules' electrical conductivity. The reduced granules may be used to fabricate electrodes for supercapacitors. The power and energy density of such an electrode material is comparable to those of conventional/commercial activated carbon-based electrodes.

Granules of graphene oxide by spray drying

An insensitive crystalline high explosive molding powder, usable as a booster HE. The subject insensitive crystalline high explosive molding powder being manufactured by adding the crystalline high explosive, metal or semi-metal particles and a polymer or wax based binder to a solvent to form a solution, spray drying the solution to drive off the solvent, thereby co-precipitating the HE and binder to form granules in which the crystals of HE and metal particles are uniformly distributed in the binder.

Spray drying of metallized explosive

An insensitive crystalline high explosive molding powder, usable as a booster HE. The subject insensitive crystalline high explosive molding powder being manufactured by adding the crystalline high explosive, and a polymer or wax based binder to a solvent to form a solution, spray drying the solution to drive off the solvent, thereby co-precipitating the HE and binder to form granules in which the crystals of HE are uniformly distributed in the binder.

Growing community of inventors

Harrison, NJ, United States of America

Hongwei Qiu