Porous structure and reduced sensitivity of 2,2’,4,4’,6,6’-hexanitrostilbene (HNS) prepared by different solvation and desolvation methods

The sensitivity and performance of energetic materials strongly depend on their microstructure. Different solvation and desolvation methods were applied to prepare high explosive HNS with modified porous structure. Vacuum pyrolysis and a novel anti-solvent extraction method have been applied on the desolvation of the HNS∙DIO (HNS = 2,2ʹ,4,4ʹ,6,6ʹ-hexanitrostilbene; DIO = 1,4-dioxane) solvate to obtain porous HNS, while in the solvation process, the porous HNS was exposed to the solvent vapor generated by low vacuum or heating to form porous HNS∙DIO solvates. After the desolvation of the porous HNS∙DIO solvates, HNS with modified porous structure was achieved. This porous HNS and modified porous HNS reveal a reduced impact and friction sensitivity, compared to the raw HNS. The microstructures of HNS tuned by these different supramolecular assembly and disassembly methods were described and the feature of the methods was also discussed. These results highlight a new, simple, effective and controllable crystal engineering strategy for the design and optimization of the microstructure of energetic materials.