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 thermo-sensitive properties of HMX. Solvent-antisolvent recrystallization produced γ-polymorph of HMX with mean diameter ~7 μm and ~8 μm when acetone and DMF were used as solvent respectively, whereas with γ-butyrolactone, β-HMX with larger particle size (mean diameter ~24 μm) was produced. Ultrasonication initially (1 h) resulted in increase in particle size but with increase in duration (24 h) particles size decreased to (~4 μm) whereas, ball milling resulted in decrease in average particle size to ~1 μm with β-polymorphic form with reduced impact sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]