Nitroglycerin trapping in melamine matrices

Cédric Schwartz; Marc Comet; Bastien Lallemand; Maxence Vince; Anna K Ott; Fabien Schnell; Benjamin Bonnet; Denis Spitzer

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20306

Nitroglycerin trapping in melamine matrices

Heliyon. 2023 Sep 19;9(9):e20306. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20306. eCollection 2023 Sep.

Authors

Cédric Schwartz¹, Marc Comet¹, Bastien Lallemand¹, Maxence Vince¹, Anna K Ott¹, Fabien Schnell¹, Benjamin Bonnet¹, Denis Spitzer¹

Affiliation

¹ NS3E Laboratory - UMR 3208 (ISL-CNRS-UNISTRA), French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis, BP 70034, 68301 Saint Louis Cedex, France.

Abstract

Melamine (Mel) was used as host matrix for liquid nitroglycerin (NG), to prepare Mel/NG solid powdered compounds containing up to 45 wt% of this explosive. The two preparation processes used for this purpose consisted in evaporating a solution of both components, either in ambient conditions or under reduced pressure by the Spray Flash-Evaporation (SFE) process. In Mel/NG materials, amorphous nitroglycerin is distributed in the crystallized melamine matrix as inclusions, which were found to be smaller in size in the material prepared by the SFE process. Mel/NG materials are not stable over time: they gradually lose the nitroglycerin they contain by evaporation.

Keywords: Composite; Explosive; Inclusion; Matrix; Melamine; Nitroglycerin.