Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Are there fluorine-based explosives?

angeltxilon - 4-5-2019 at 07:21

I refer to explosives with fluoroamino (NF2), nitrofluoride or similar groups.
Most, if not all, conventional explosives are based on nitro (NO2) groups.

..

Conventional explosives emit large amounts of energy having as final products CO2, H2O and N2 (sometimes they are absent of H2O or produce CO and other compounds).

Fluorine-based explosives should be more powerful (I think) than oxygen-based equivalents, since fluorine is more electronegative and the gradient of electrodensities inside the compound would be higher.
The reaction would have as final products CF4, HF and N2 (perhaps other compounds such as NF3, fluorocarbon polymers, etc.).

Is this hypothesis correct? Are there fluorine-based explosives?

[Edited on 4-5-2019 by angeltxilon]

Vomaturge - 4-5-2019 at 12:20

https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=14...
https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=93...

MineMan - 4-5-2019 at 14:02

Yes. There are explosives with SF5 groups. They were developed in the 90s. They showed good results yet I cannot find any information on them.....

Perhaps they became classified??

http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0043558/MARTINEZ_H.pdf



[Edited on 4-5-2019 by MineMan]

Dornier 335A - 4-5-2019 at 14:38

Fluorine is only worth it if you can form HF. Water is a good detonation product with low molecular weight and energy. HF shares those advantages but in addition, it doesn't dissociate until much higher temperatures. CF4 is a really bad detonation product due to its high molecular weight.

Something else to consider is the fact that fluorine can only steal one electron whereas oxygen steals two. Therefore, an "oxygen balanced" explosive with oxygen completely replaced by fluorine requires considerably more fluorine per weight!

I would say the best strategy is to include just enough fluorine in the molecule to react with all the hydrogens and then use oxygen to oxidize carbon to CO or CO2. One such molecule is bis(2-difluoramino-2,2-dinitroethyl)nitramine (C4H4N10O10F4 ) which outperforms HMX and is slightly oxygen positive. Sadly it is as sensitive as lead azide.

MineMan - 4-5-2019 at 20:25

Quote: Originally posted by Dornier 335A  
Fluorine is only worth it if you can form HF. Water is a good detonation product with low molecular weight and energy. HF shares those advantages but in addition, it doesn't dissociate until much higher temperatures. CF4 is a really bad detonation product due to its high molecular weight.

Something else to consider is the fact that fluorine can only steal one electron whereas oxygen steals two. Therefore, an "oxygen balanced" explosive with oxygen completely replaced by fluorine requires considerably more fluorine per weight!


I would say the best strategy is to include just enough fluorine in the molecule to react with all the hydrogens and then use oxygen to oxidize carbon to CO or CO2. One such molecule is bis(2-difluoramino-2,2-dinitroethyl)nitramine (C4H4N10O10F4 ) which outperforms HMX and is slightly oxygen positive. Sadly it is as sensitive as lead azide.


Your right dornier! They will always be outperformed.

They do shine however for reactive fragments....

MaxIsANerd - 4-5-2019 at 21:40

Chlorine trifluoride is pretty nasty stuff... While it can definitely behave like an explosive, it is hard to store or contain, and thus is impractical despite its high energy.

Microtek - 6-5-2019 at 01:08

Also, I think the fact that there has been a drive towards environmentally friendly energetics over the past decade, has somewhat hampered the research into explosives which release extremely toxic substances such as HF on detonation...