Reexamination of an Energetic Nitrate Ester SHN

A well-known energetic nitrate ester sorbitol hexanitrate (SHN) was synthesized and characterized. SHN was shown to exhibit the highest density at ambient temperature among all known nitrate esters synthesized from simple polyols. SHN was compared with conventional 1,4-dinitrato-2,3-dinitro-2,3-bis(nitratomethylene)-butane (SMX) as a component of plasticizers in compositions comprising polar synthetic polymers (polyurethane and butadiene/acrylonitrile copolymer). Solid–liquid diagrams for SHN and SMX in diethylene glycol dinitrate (DEGDN) are presented. The energy characteristics and densities of the two-component plasticizers were shown to be higher than those of DEGDN alone. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim