Cocrystallization Effect on the Detonation Performance of Fuel–Oxidizer Combination

ABSTRACT Cocrystals contain two components in their crystalline structures. This article describes the detonation experiments on cocrystals and mixtures of fuel and oxidizers. Five pairs of fuels and oxidizers were selected as the target cocrystals: 1,2,4‐triazole (TA)/sodium perchlorate (SP), 3‐amino‐1,2,4‐triazole (3ATA)/SP, 4‐amino‐1,2,4‐triazole (4ATA)/SP, glycine (Gly)/ ammonium nitrate (AN), and 4ATA/AN. All the cocrystals showed higher propagation velocities ( V p ) than those of the corresponding mixtures. Especially, 3ATA/SP and 4ATA/SP cocrystals exhibited steady‐state detonation with average detonation velocities of 4.62 and 4.76 km/s, respectively, whereas V p of 3ATA+SP and 4ATA+SP mixtures gradually decreased. High‐speed photography supported the results of the detonation experiments for the 3ATA/SP and 3ATA+SP. The measured average detonation velocities of 3ATA/SP and 4ATA/SP accounted for 89.3% and 84.6%, respectively, of the calculated detonation velocities of the respective mixtures, indicating that the detonation of the two cocrystals was nonideal. The results led to the construction of a hypothesis about hot‐spot growth in cocrystals and mixtures due to the difference in the manner of particle contact. These results suggest that cocrystallization can improve the detonation performance of the combination of fuel and oxidizers.