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Updated: Mar 19, 2026

Research and Development of High-performance Explosives
Published on: February 20, 2016
Comparative theoretical kinetics and thermodynamics study on high-energy insensitive explosive
Min-Hsien Liu1, Chuan-Wen Liu2
1Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Chung Cheng Institute of Technology, National Defense University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, Republic of China. minhsienliu@gmail.com.
Abstract:
Two synthesis methods were investigated in this study in order to explore feasible reaction pathways to obtain the target DADNE product: (1) the nitration of tetrahalogen ethene and (2) the reaction of acetamidine hydrochloride with dicarbonyl dichloride. Through theoretical simulation, the findings revealed that synthesis was possible, starting from acetamidine hydrochloride in a hydrated environment, followed by subsequent reaction routes via cyclization of the methoxy-substituted acetamidine anion intermediate with oxalyl chloride to form 2-methoxy-2-methyl-imidazolan-4,5-dione, acid-catalyzed synthesis of 2-methylene-imidazolan-4,5-dione, nitration using nitric acid to obtain 2-dinitromethylene-imidazolan-4,5-dione, and hydrolysis to produce 1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethene. A total energy of 1048.4 kJ mol(-1) was needed to carry out the reaction according to calculation of the energy barriers at each stage, as shown by the reaction profiles.
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