Green Preparation, Spheroidal, and Superior Property of Nano-1,3,5,7-Tetranittro-1,3,5,7-Tetrazocane

Herein, a green process for preparing nano-HMX, mechanical demulsification shearing (MDS) technology, was developed. Nano-HMX was successfully fabricated via MDS technology without using any chemical reagents, and the fabrication mechanism was proposed. Based on the “fractal theory,” the optimal shearing time for mechanical emulsification was deduced by calculating the fractal dimension of the particle size distribution. The as-prepared nano-HMX was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). And the impact sensitivities of HMX particles were contrastively investigated. The raw HMX had a lower fractal dimension of 1.9273. The ideal shearing time was 7 h. The resultant nano-HMX possessed a particle size distribution ranging from 203.3 nm to 509.1 nm as compared to raw HMX. Nano-HMX particles were dense spherical, maintaining β-HMX crystal form. In addition, they had much lower impact sensitivity. However, the apparent activation energy as well as thermal decomposition temperature of nano-HMX particles was decreased, attributing to the reduced probability for hotspot generation. Especially when the shearing time was 7 h, the activation energy was markedly decreased.