title: Dissolution of three insensitive munitions formulations.
abstract: The US military fires live munitions during training. To save soldiers lives both during training and war, the military is developing insensitive munitions (IM) that minimize unintentional detonations. Some of the compounds in the IM formulation are, however, very soluble in water, raising environmental concerns about their fate and transport. We measured the dissolution of three of these IM formulations, IMX101, IMX104 and PAX21 using laboratory drip tests and studied the accompanying changes in particle structure using micro computed tomography. Our laboratory drip tests mimic conditions on training ranges, where spatially isolated particles of explosives scattered by partial detonations are dissolved by rainfall. We found that the constituents of these IM formulations dissolve sequentially and in the order predicted by their aqueous solubility. The order of magnitude differences in solubility among their constituents produce water solutions whose compositions and concentrations vary with time. For IMX101 and IMX104, that contain 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO), the solutions also vary in pH. The good mass balances measured for the drip tests indicate that the formulations are not being photo-or bio-transformed under laboratory conditions.
authors.affiliation: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, 72 Lyme Road, Hanover, NH 03755-1290, USA. Electronic address: Susan.Taylor@erdc.dren.mil.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, 72 Lyme Road, Hanover, NH 03755-1290, USA.
authors.forename: Eileen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, 72 Lyme Road, Hanover, NH 03755-1290, USA.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bullion
authors.affiliation: Biosphere 2 Earthscience, University of Arizona, 845 N. Park Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721-0158, USA.
authors.forename: Katerina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dontsova
mesh_terms: D000840:Anisoles / Q000737:chemistry*; D053834:Explosive Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D009574:Nitro Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D012995:Solubility; D014230:Triazoles / Q000737:chemistry*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D055114:X-Ray Microtomography
chemical_list: C505897:3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one; D000840:Anisoles; D053834:Explosive Agents; D009574:Nitro Compounds; D014230:Triazoles; D014867:Water; C539360:2,4-dinitroanisole
keywords: DNAN; Dissolution; Insensitive munitions; Micro-computed tomography; NTO