skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Insight into the Chemistry of PETN Under Shock Compression Through Ultrafast Broadband Mid-Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy

Journal Article · · Journal of Physical Chemistry. A, Molecules, Spectroscopy, Kinetics, Environment, and General Theory

In this study, thin films of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) were shock compressed using the laser driven shock apparatus at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Two spectroscopic probes were available to this apparatus: visible white light transient absorption spectroscopy (VIS) from 400 to 700 nm and mid-infrared transient absorption spectroscopy (MIR) from 1150 to 3800 cm–1. Important PETN vibrational modes are the symmetric and antisymmetric NO2 stretches at 1280 and 1650 cm–1, respectively, as well as CH stretches at ~2900 cm–1. Shock strength was varied from approximately 3 to 55 GPa to span from the chemically unreactive regime to the regime in which fast chemical reaction took place on the 250 ps time scale of the measurements. VIS and MIR results suggest irreversible chemistry was induced in PETN at pressures above 30 GPa. At lower shock pressures, the spectroscopy showed minimal changes attributable to pressure induced effects. Under the higher-pressure reactive conditions, the frequency region at the antisymmetric NO2 stretch mode had a significantly increased absorption while the region around the symmetric NO2 stretch did not. No observable increased absorption occurred in the higher frequency regions where CH-, NH-, and OH- bond absorptions would be observed. A broad absorption appeared on the shoulder at the red-edge of the CO2 vibrational band around 2200 cm–1. In addition to the experiments, reactive molecular dynamics were carried out under equivalent shock conditions to correlate the evolution of the infrared spectrum to molecular processes. The simulations show results consistent to experiments up to 30 GPa but suggest that NO and NO2 related features provided the strongest contributions to the shocked infrared changes. Proposed mechanisms for shocked PETN chemistry are analyzed as consistent or inconsistent with the data presented here. Our experimental data suggests C≡O or N2O bond formation, nitrite formation, and absence of significant hydroxyl or amine concentrations in the initial chemistry steps in PETN shocked above 30 GPa.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001; 000062867; 20170070DR
OSTI ID:
1735915
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-20-25037
Journal Information:
Journal of Physical Chemistry. A, Molecules, Spectroscopy, Kinetics, Environment, and General Theory, Vol. 124, Issue 35; ISSN 1089-5639
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (99)

Measurement of Chapman‐Jouguet Pressure for Explosives journal September 1957
Gas Gun for Impact Studies journal July 1970
LASL Explosive Property Data book December 1980
Strong Planar Shock Waves Generated by Explosively-Driven Spherical Implosions journal March 1974
Detonation wave profiles in HMX based explosives
  • Gustavsen, R. L.; Sheffield, S. A.; Alcon, R. R.
  • The tenth American Physical Society topical conference on shock compression of condensed matter, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.55674
conference January 1998
Embedded Electromagnetic Gauge Measurements and Modeling of Shock Initiation in the TATB Based Explosives LX-17 and PBX 9502 conference January 2002
Dynamic elastic‐plastic properties of single‐crystal pentaerythritol tetranitrate journal March 1976
Measurement of the Very‐High‐Pressure Properties of Materials using a Light‐Gas Gun journal August 1966
Shock Initiation of Solid Explosives journal January 1961
Hugoniot and initiation measurements on TNAZ explosive
  • Sheffield, S. A.; Gustavsen, R. L.; Alcon, R. R.
  • Proceedings of the conference of the American Physical Society topical group on shock compression of condensed matter, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.50842
conference January 1996
Equation of State of Metals from Shock Wave Measurements journal March 1955
Equation of state and temperature measurements for shocked nitromethane journal November 2000
Anomalous shock initiation of detonation in pentaerythritol tetranitrate crystals journal January 1997
Shock response of pentaerythritol tetranitrate single crystals journal October 1991
Shock-induced organic chemistry conference January 1982
Infrared, Raman, and coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy of the hydrogen/deuterium isotopomers of nitromethane journal April 1991
Coherent anti-stokes Raman scattering in benzene and nitromethane shock-compressed to 10 GPa journal May 1986
Vibrational spectroscopy of high-temperature, dense molecular fluids by coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering journal September 1992
Compression of Porous Copper by Shock Waves journal November 1968
Shock compression data for liquids. III. Substituted methane compounds, ethylene glycol, glycerol, and ammonia journal April 1981
Chemical reactions at detonation fronts in solids journal June 1995
Time-resolved absorption spectroscopy in shocked PETN single crystals conference January 2000
An investigation of the shock initiation of liquid nitromethane journal August 1976
Time-Resolved Raman Measurements in Nitromethane Shocked to 140 kbar journal April 1994
The Dynamics of Detonation in Explosive Systems journal January 2007
Stability of detonations for an idealized condensed-phase model journal January 2008
Reactive Molecular Dynamics of Hypervelocity Collisions of PETN Molecules journal November 2009
A Quantum Mechanical Molecular Dynamics Study of Binary Collisions of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN): Its Correlation to Shock Sensitivity journal October 2004
Decomposition of pentaerythritol tetranitrate [C(CH 2 ONO 2 ) 4 ] following electronic excitation journal October 2011
Atoms-in-Molecules Study of Intra- and Intermolecular Bonding in the Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate Crystal journal November 2006
Vibrational Properties and Structure of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate journal May 2001
Raman Spectra of Shock Compressed Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate Single Crystals:  Anisotropic Response journal October 2006
Thermal, fracture, and laser‐induced decomposition of pentaerythritol tetranitrate journal June 1986
Shock Wave Initiation of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate Single Crystals:  Mechanism of Anisotropic Sensitivity journal November 2000
Reactions of Organic Compounds in Explosive-Driven Shock Waves journal January 1996
Shock Wave Induced Decomposition Chemistry of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate Single Crystals:  Time-Resolved Emission Spectroscopy journal January 2002
Pressure effects on the thermal decomposition of nitramines, nitrosamines, and nitrate esters journal June 1992
High Pressure–High Temperature Polymorphism and Decomposition of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN) journal June 2013
Experimental and Theoretical Study of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate Conformers journal July 2004
Raman Scattering Studies of the High-Pressure Stability of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate, C(CH 2 ONO 2 ) 4 journal October 2005
Studies of phase transitions in PETN at high pressures journal September 2006
Etude des conditions d'initiation de la pentrite (PETN) par spectrométrie raman ultra-rapide journal February 1982
Reactive Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Shock Through a Single Crystal of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate journal October 2009
Atomistic Simulation of Orientation Dependence in Shock-Induced Initiation of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate journal January 2013
A benchtop shock physics laboratory: Ultrafast laser driven shock spectroscopy and interferometry methods journal June 2019
Coupled Thermal and Electromagnetic Induced Decomposition in the Molecular Explosive αHMX; A Reactive Molecular Dynamics Study journal January 2014
Ultrafast dynamic ellipsometry measurements of early time laser ablation of titanium thin films journal May 2008
Single shot measurements of laser driven shock waves using ultrafast dynamic ellipsometry journal August 2007
Single shot Hugoniot of cyclohexane using a spatially resolved laser driven shock wave journal November 2008
Probing ultrafast shock-induced chemistry in liquids using broad-band mid-infrared absorption spectroscopy journal May 2019
Ultrafast shock-induced chemistry in carbon disulfide probed with dynamic ellipsometry and transient absorption spectroscopy journal February 2015
Ultrafast Chemical Reactions in Shocked Nitromethane Probed with Dynamic Ellipsometry and Transient Absorption Spectroscopy journal March 2014
Shock Induced Chemistry In Liquids Studied With Ultrafast Dynamic Ellipsometry And Visible Transient Absorption Spectroscopy journal October 2012
Ultrafast studies of shock waves using interferometric methods and transient infrared absorption spectroscopy journal April 2004
Broadband mid-infrared measurements for shock-induced chemistry
  • McGrane, Shawn; Bowlan, Pamela; Powell, Michael
  • SHOCK COMPRESSION OF CONDENSED MATTER - 2017: Proceedings of the Conference of the American Physical Society Topical Group on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5044949
conference January 2018
Shock Induced Reaction Observed via Ultrafast Infrared Absorption in Poly(vinyl nitrate) Films journal October 2004
Ultrafast spectroscopy and interferometry of laser-shocked thin films: practical considerations conference September 2004
Influence of Hot Bands on Vibrational Spectra of Shock Compressed Materials journal May 2001
Shock Hugoniot Equations of State for Binary Ideal (Toluene/Fluorobenzene) and Nonideal (Ethanol/Water) Liquid Mixtures journal May 2013
Shock Hugoniot equations of state for binary water-alcohol liquid mixtures journal January 2014
The elastic-plastic response of aluminum films to ultrafast laser-generated shocks journal January 2011
Measurement of elastic precursor decay in pre-heated aluminum films under ultra-fast laser generated shocks journal May 2018
Generation of Phase-Stable Sub-Cycle Mid-Infrared Pulses from Filamentation in Nitrogen journal February 2013
Generation of sub-two-cycle mid-infrared pulses by four-wave mixing through filamentation in air journal January 2007
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate II: its crystal structure and transformation to PETN I; an algorithm for refinement of crystal structures with poor data journal July 1975
Constant-stress Hugoniostat method for following the dynamical evolution of shocked matter journal July 2004
The Cambridge Structural Database
  • Groom, Colin R.; Bruno, Ian J.; Lightfoot, Matthew P.
  • Acta Crystallographica Section B Structural Science, Crystal Engineering and Materials, Vol. 72, Issue 2, p. 171-179 https://doi.org/10.1107/S2052520616003954
journal April 2016
A generalized crystal-cutting method for modeling arbitrarily oriented crystals in 3D periodic simulation cells with applications to crystal–crystal interfaces journal October 2016
Thermodynamics and quantum corrections from molecular dynamics for liquid water journal September 1983
Reactive Molecular Dynamics Simulations to Investigate the Shock Response of Liquid Nitromethane journal January 2019
Ultrafast Shock-Induced Reactions in Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate Thin Films journal October 2018
Interpretation of Raman Spectra of Nitro-Containing Explosive Materials. Part I: Group Frequency and Structural Class Membership journal December 1997
Infrared Complex Refractive Index Measurements and Simulated Reflection Mode Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy of Shock-Compressed Polymer Thin Films journal May 2004
Absorption by Infrared Bands of Carbon Dioxide Gas at Elevated Pressures and Temperatures* journal January 1960
Catalog of Infrared Spectra for Qualitative Analysis of Gases journal August 1956
Infrared spectra of the CO 2 ⋅⋅⋅HF and N 2 O⋅⋅⋅HF complexes in solid argon at 12 K journal March 1982
Infrared Spectrum of Solid Carbon Monoxide journal September 1961
Chemical reaction initiation and hot-spot formation in shocked energetic molecular materials journal March 1993
Explanation of the Colossal Detonation Sensitivity of Silicon Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (Si-PETN) Explosive journal June 2009
Physical mechanism of anisotropic sensitivity in pentaerythritol tetranitrate from compressive-shear reaction dynamics simulations journal February 2010
1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethylene under high pressure-temperature journal November 2012
Spectroscopic and thermal studies on the decomposition of l,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB) journal January 1996
Spectrometric identification of organic compounds journal November 1962
Correlations of Infrared Group Frequencies and band Intensities in Organic Molecules with Substituent Constants: a Statistical Evaluation journal September 1961
Infrared Intensities And Molecular Structure journal June 1958
The average XH stretching frequency as a measure of XH bond properties journal February 1962
The role of electron correlation on calculated XH-stretching vibrational band intensities journal February 1997
Single-pulse Raman scattering studies of heterogeneous explosive materials journal January 1985
Infrared Spectrum of the NO 2 Ion Isolated in an Argon Matrix journal April 1970
Infrared Spectrum of Matrix‐Isolated NO 2 journal February 1965
Infrared spectroscopy study of the species arising during nitrogen dioxide adsorption on titania (anatase) journal February 1994
Infrared Spectra of the Frozen Oxides of Nitrogen journal July 1959
Infrared spectroscopy of the NO3 radical journal June 1998
Infrared Spectroscopy of the Microhydrated Nitrate Ions NO 3 (H 2 O) 1−6 journal July 2009
Microhydration of NO 3 - :  A Theoretical Study on Structure, Stability and IR Spectra journal March 2008
Nitrite and nitrate ions as infrared pressure gauges for diamond anvils journal September 1983
Infrared Spectrum of Matrix‐Isolated Nitrate Ion journal September 1972
The infrared spectra and the rotational isomerism of methyl and ethyl nitrite journal December 1967
Preparation, vapor pressure, and infrared spectrum of methyl nitrite journal January 1982