American Chemical Society, The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 36(118), p. 8002-8008, 2014
DOI: 10.1021/jp507102x
Full text: Download
The primary thermolysis reactions of a promising insensitive explosive 1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethylene (DADNE, FOX-7) have been studied in the gas phase at a high level of theory (CCSD(T)-F12/aVTZ). Our calculations revealed that none of the conventional reactions (C−NO 2 bond fission, nitro-nitrite and nitro-aci-nitro rearrangements) dominate thermolysis of FOX-7. On the contrary, two new decomposition pathways specific for this particular species that commenced with enamino−imino isomerization and intramolecular cyclization were found instead to be more feasible energetically. The activation barriers of these primary isomerization reactions were calculated to be 48.4 and 28.8 kcal/mol, while the activation energies of the overall decomposition pathways are predicted to be ∼49 and ∼56 kcal/mol, respectively. The new pathways can also be relevant for a wide series of unsaturated hydrocarbons substituted with both nitro-and amino-groups (e.g., triaminotrinitrobenzene, TATB).