Chemo-mechanical preparation and investigation of physio-chemical and thermo-sensitive properties of Octogen

Present work demonstrates the effect of in tandem application of chemo-mechanical methods on physio-chemical and thermosensitive properties of HMX. Solvent-antisolvent recrystallization produced gamma-polymorph of HMX with mean diameter similar to 7 mu m and similar to 8 mu m when acetone and DMF were used as solvent respectively, whereas with gamma-butyrolactone, beta-HMX with larger particle size (mean diameter similar to 24 mu m) was produced. Ultrasonication initially (1 h) resulted in increase in particle size but with increase in duration (24 h) particles size decreased to (similar to 4 mu m) whereas, ball milling resulted in decrease in average particle size to similar to 1 mu m with beta-polymorphic form with reduced impact sensitivity. [GRAPHICS] .