Preparation and Characterization of Free-Standing Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX) Films with a Gelatin as Matrix

Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX), also known as cyclonite, hexogen and T4, is an explosive nitroamine. RDX is considered one of the most powerful military explosive, and has a tremendous force shattering effect from the sudden release of energy. In this article, free-standing RDX film was prepared by using a bacterial cellulose gelatin as matrix. The RDX particles in the film tightly cling to the network of gelatin, and the granularity distribution of RDX is very uniform in the range of 30-45 nm. The average contents of the RDX in the films are more than 81% when the RDX concentrations in the soaking solutions are more than 0.05 g/ml. The decomposition temperature of RDX in the film is found to decrease approximately 20°C compared with that of raw micro-size RDX. The film was characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), thermogravimetry (TG) and Differential Scanning Calorimetric (DSC).