High-pressure studies of ammonium dinitramide

This proposal seeks to explore the high-pressure behaviour of ammonium dinitramide, a green oxidiser that is a potential replacement for the widely used ammonium perchlorate. The results of these studies will provide valuable information on the effects of pressure on the structure of ammonium dinitramide, and in particular will shed light on the apparent phase transitions near 2 GPa and 5-6 GPa. The experimental results will be compared with the results of DFT calculations and an ongoing, complementary single crystal X-ray diffraction study. The results will be of substantial interest to those modelling the behaviour and performance of this material, especially under shock and pre-detonation conditions and will improve our understanding of the factors that influence the sensitivity to energetic materials to initiation, thereby enabling the design of new, safer energetic materials.