title: Photo-degradation of 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN): An emerging munitions compound.
abstract: The US military is developing insensitive munitions (IM) that are less sensitive to shock and high temperatures to minimize unintentional detonations. DNAN (2,4-dinitroanisole) is one of the main ingredients of these IM formulations. During live-fire training, chunks of IM formulations are scattered by partial detonations and, once on the soil, they weather and dissolve. DNAN changes color when exposed to sunlight suggesting that it photodegrades into other compounds. We investigated the photo-degradation of DNAN both as a pure solid and as part of solid IM formulations, IMX101, IMX104 and PAX21. The concentrations of degradation products found were small, <1%, relative to DNAN concentrations. We saw transient peaks in the chromatograms indicating intermediate, unstable products but we consistently found methoxy nitrophenols and methoxy nitroanilines. We also found one unknown in most of the samples and other unknowns less frequently.
authors.affiliation: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, USA. Electronic address: Susan.Taylor@usace.army.mil.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, USA.
authors.forename: Marianne E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.affiliation: Dartmouth College, USA.
authors.forename: Julie B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Becher
authors.affiliation: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, USA.
authors.forename: David B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Ringelberg
authors.affiliation: Dartmouth College, USA.
authors.forename: Philip Z
authors.initials: PZ
authors.lastname: Mannes
authors.affiliation: Dartmouth College, USA.
authors.forename: Gordon W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Gribble
mesh_terms: D000840:Anisoles / Q000737:chemistry*; D003116:Color; D053834:Explosive Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D007700:Kinetics; D009574:Nitro Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D055668:Photochemical Processes; D013472:Sunlight
chemical_list: D000840:Anisoles; D053834:Explosive Agents; D009574:Nitro Compounds; C539360:2,4-dinitroanisole
keywords: 2,4-dinitroanisole; Insensitive munitions (IM); Photo-degradation