N-guanylurea-dinitramide: a new energetic material with low sensitivity for propellants and explosives applications

FOX-12, or N-guanylurea-dinitramide, is a novel energetic material with low sensitivity and good potential for use as a propellant or insensitive munitions (IM) explosive. This paper reports its synthesis, sensitivity (friction and drop weight), thermal stability and explosion temperature, as well as its bulk crystal density, ρ=1.7545 g/cm3 (powder X-ray), and its heat of formation, ΔH°f=−355 kJ/mol (bomb calorimetry). The activation energy (Ea=277 kJ/mol) was measured with a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The ignition temperature was measured using Wood’s metal bath (Tign=192 °C). Using a thermo-chemical code (Cheetah 1.40) and the experimentally determined values of density and heat of formation, the performance was estimated.