1.3- dinitrate esters

A suspension of thallium (III) nitrate in hexane reacts with epoxides to give the corresponding -hydroxy nitrate esters in good yield. The same reagent in acetonitrile has been used to synthesize a-nitratoketones from substituted acetophenones, 1,2-dinitrate esters from alkenes, and 1,3-dinitrates from ring-opening nitration of cyclopropanes. ... 

Alkenes can react with nitric acid, either neat or in a chlorinated solvent, to give a mixture of compounds, including v/c-dinitroalkane, jS-nitro-nitrate ester, v/c-dinitrate ester, /3-nitroalcohol, and nitroalkeneproducts. Cyclohexene reacts with 70 % nitric acid to yield a mixture of 1,2-dinitrocyclohexane and 2-nitrocyclohexanol nitrate. Frankel and Klager investigated the reactions of several alkenes with 70 % nitric acid, but only in the case of 2-nitro-2-butene (1) was a product identified, namely, 2,2,3-trinitrobutane (2). 

Alkenes react with dinitrogen pentoxide in chlorinated solvents to give a mixture of /3-nitro-nitrate, vic-dinitro, vic-dinitrate ester and nitroalkene compounds. At temperatures between -30 °C and -10 °C the /3-nitro-nitrate is often the main product. The /3-nitro-nitrates are inherently unstable and readily form the corresponding nitroalkenes." Propylene reacts with dinitrogen pentoxide in methylene chloride between -10 °C and 0°C to form a mixture of l-nitro-2-propanol nitrate (27 %) and isomeric nitropropenes (12 %). The same reaction with cyclohexene is more complicated." ... 

At temperatures between 0 °C and 25 °C the vtc-dinitrate ester is often observed in the... 

Hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene (8) (HTPB) has been treated with dinitrogen pentoxide in methylene chloride. The product (9) is an energetic oligomer but is unlikely to find application because of the inherent instability of /3-nitronitrates." Initial peroxyacid epoxidation of some of the double bonds of HTPB followed by reaction with dinitrogen pentoxide yields a product containing vtc-dinitrate ester groups and this product (NHTPB) is of much more interest as an energetic binder (see Section 3.10)." ... 

Vicinal dinitrate esters from the reaction of epoxides with dinitrogen pentoxide... 

In many cases almost quantitative yields are reported for the formation of v/c-dinitrate esters from the reaction of simple alkyl and dialkyl epoxides with dinitrogen pentoxide (Table 3.2). Some of the products formed include ethylene glycol dinitrate (2) (96%), 1,2-propanediol dinitrate (8) (96 %), 2,3-butanediol dinitrate (94 %) and 1,2-butanediol dinitrate (96 %). Reaction times are of the order of 5-15 minutes. 

Solutions of nitric acid in chlorinated solvents can add to some alkenes to give nitrate esters. Some tertiary nitrate esters can be prepared in this way isobutylene (49) reacts with fuming nitric acid of 98.6 % concentration in methylene chloride to give ferf-butyl nitrate (50). However, the products obtained depend on both the substrate and the reaction conditions /3-nitro-nitrate esters, vic-dinitrate esters, /3-nitroalcohols and nitroalkenes have been reported as products with other alkenes. Oxidation products like carboxylic acids are also common, especially at elevated temperatures and in the presence of oxygen. The reaction of alkenes with fuming nitric acid is an important route to unsaturated nitrosteroids, which assumedly arise from the dehydration of /3-nitroalcohols or the elimination of nitric acid from /3-nitro-nitrate... 

Canfield and Rohrback ° reported on the reaction of some electron-deficient difluo-roaminoalkenes with dinitrogen pentoxide in chloroform at subambient temperatures. Contrary to previous work that the /3-nitro-nitrate ester should be the main product, the corresponding vtc-dinitrate esters were isolated from these reactions l,4-bis(iV,iV-difiuoroamino)-2,3-butanediol dinitrate (55), 3,4-bis(iV,iV-difluoroamino)-l,2-butanediol dinitrate (56) and 3-(iV,iV-difluoroamino)-1,2-propanediol dinitrate (57) were isolated in 30 %, 27 %, and 55 % yields respectively, from the parent alkenes. 

A suspension of thallium (III) nitrate in pentane at room temperature can react with alkenes to give vtc-dinitrate esters. Cyclohexene reacts with this reagent to give 1,2-cyclohexanediol dinitrate (85 %) (as a mixture of isomers) and 15 % cyclopentanecarboxaldehyde (hydride shift in the dethallation step). Some alkenes react extremely slowly with this reagent e.g. isomeric 5-decenes. 

Dihydroxylation of the allyl groups of (70) with hydrogen peroxide and catalytic osmium tetroxide, followed by 0-nitration of the product (72), yields the hexanitrate ester (73). Similar treatment of the mono-allyl ether (74) affords the pentanitrate ester (76). Evans and Callaghan also 0-nitrated the hydroxy groups of (70) and (74) to yield the dinitrate and trinitrate esters, (71) and (75), respectively. The dinitrate ester (71) may find use as a monomer for the synthesis of energetic binders. 

Dimethylolnitramine (252) is inevitably present as its dinitrate ester (256) under the conditions of hexamine nitrolysis. This compound is extremely sensitive to hydrolysis but can be... 

TMETN is a liquid at room temperature and the production process of NG-TMETN propellants is the same as that described for NG-NG propellants. The shock sensitivity of TM ETN is sufficiently lower than that of NG that no desensitizers are needed for NC-TMETN propellants. Instead of the DEP or TA used as low energy density plasticizers and stabilizers of NC-NG propellants, TMETN is mixed with TEGDN, which is a dinitrate ester and hence a relatively high energy density material. Thus, the overall energy density of double-base propellants composed of NC-TMETN is equivalent to or even higher than that of NC-NG double-base propellants. 

NHTPB [Structure (4.18)] is a liquid polymer, whose viscosity can be varied by changing the percentage conversion of double-bonds to dinitrate ester groups. It is made by conversion of a percentage of the double bonds in HTPB to epoxide groups and then to nitrate-ester groups by the reaction with... 

Diethanolamine dinitric ester nitrate (diethanolamine trinitrate)... 

It has been reported by Cauquil and Barrera 83 that treatment of Oyclohexene oxide with two molar equivalents of silver perchlorate leads to the formation of metallic silver and a diperchlorate enter formulated as shown in Eq. <431). Similar unsaturated dinitrate esters, which are extremely explosive, wen reported to be formed with silver nitrate.2 8... 

The above discussion clearly revealed that the covalently bound oxalic acid dinitrate ester is the most promising candidate as a high oxidizer and potential replacement for AP in this series. In order to evaluate its thermodynamic and kinetic stability we calculated the decomposition into C02 and N02. The reaction enthalpy of AH = 56.5 kcal mol1 clearly indicates that oxalic acid dinitrate ester is (as expected) thermodynamically unstable with respect to its decomposition into C02 and N02. 

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