The Solubility of ϵ‐CL‐20 in Selected Materials

Abstract

Abstract The solubility of the epsilon polymorph of CL‐20 was determined in thirteen liquids over the temperature range of ambient to 74°C using high performance liquid chromatography. The experiments included ϵ‐CL‐20 produced by two different synthesis routes; one lot contained a higher level of polymorphic impurity, the other lot contained a higher level of non‐CL‐20 impurity.In general, the ϵ‐CL‐20 was found to be highly soluble in the solvents with carbonyl groups, and relatively insoluble in hydrocarbons and materials containing ether linkages. The amount of phase conversion to γ‐CL‐20 which occured during the solubility testing was measured using FTIR, and ranged from essentially zero to ∼ 10% conversion. It appears that the presence of β‐CL‐20 in the virgin ϵ‐CL‐20 lots will affect the amount of gamma‐phase present in the final residue.