Formation of particles of explosives with supercritical fluids

The particle properties of components of explosives and propellants, i.e. the particle size, the particle size distribution and the particle shape, are very important. Especially with regard to insensitive explosives, the formation of crystals without spots, i.e. free of solvent inclusions, is aspired. New processes, taking advantage of the special characteristics of high-compressed respectively supercritical fluids, offer many possibilities to influence the properties of solid particles. For the RESS process (Rapid Expansion of Supercritical Solutions), the formation of particles results from the rapid expansion of a loaded supercritical fluid. The GAS process (Gas Anti-Solvent) uses a high-compressed fluid as anti-solvent to lower the solvent power of a commons solvent and thus to recrystallize the solid. In this report, the different processes to form particles of explosives and propellants with supercritical fluids are explained, and the first results are presented.