Shock-driven chemistry in molecular crystals: Generation and characterization with imaging and spectroscopy - ICS84 The 84th Annual Meeting of the Israel Chemical Society

Dmitro Martynowych ^1,2 Keith A. Nelson ^1,2

¹Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
²Institute of Soldier Nanotechnologies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

We have developed a platform to generate shockwaves in molecular crystals and monitor the ensuing chemistry. A thin layer (5-50 µm) of material is pressed between two glass plates, confining it to a planar geometry. A sub-nanosecond laser pulse is focused into a circular “ring” pattern of 100 µm radius, launching a shock wave that propagates within the plane of the sample and focuses toward the circle’s center. Using a high-speed multi-frame camera we have been able to record up to sixteen images of a single shock event with time intervals as short as 3 ns. This single-shot method of imaging and characterizing shocked samples has allowed us to investigate the shock-induced decomposition of energetic materials RDX, HMX, and PETN. We have been able to collect time-resolved single-shot data and spectroscopy from shocked crystals throughout the decomposition process to help us gain insight into shock-induced chemistry.