Towards the low-sensitive and high-energetic co-crystal explosive CL-20/TNT: from intermolecular interactions to structures and properties.

Employing molecular dynamic (MD) simulations and solid-state density functional theory (DFT), we carried out thorough studies to understand the interaction-structure-property interrelationship of the co-crystal explosive 1 : 1 CL-20 : TNT. Our results revealed that the co-crystallization of CL-20 and TNT molecules enhances the intermolecular binding forces, where the main driving force for the formation of the co-crystal CL-20/TNT comes from HO and CO interactions, while OO contributes to the co-crystal stabilization. Furthermore, we also used the concept of atoms in molecule (AIM) and the reduced density gradient (RDG) to describe the spatial arrangements and interactions of co-crystal compositions, which showed that although the adjoining TNT molecules possess two symmetry groups and the adjoining CL-20 molecules possess the same symmetry group, their interactions are not identical. These spatial arrangements provide a good reference to the formation of other co-crystals. When the obtained structural and detonation properties of the three crystals were compared, it was observed that the CL-20/TNT co-crystal achieved the desirable properties of explosives, i.e., low-sensitivity and high-energy, possessing the advantages of both CL-20 and TNT explosives.

Quasi-Static Two-Dimensional Infrared Spectra of the Carboxyhemoglobin Subsystem under Electric Fields: A Theoretical Study.

There is no doubt that electric fields of a specific frequency and intensity could excite certain vibrational modes of a macromolecule, which alters its mode coupling and conformation. Motivated by recent experiments and theories, we study the mode coupling between the Fe-CO mode and CO-stretch mode and vibration energy transfer among the active site and proteins in carboxyhemoglobin (HbCO) under different electric fields using the quasi-static two-dimensional infrared spectra. This study uses iron-porphyrin-imidazole-CO and two distal histidines in HbCO as the subsystem. The potential energy and dipole moment surfaces of the subsystem are calculated using an all-electron ab initio (B3LYP-D3(BJ)) method with the basis set Lanl2dz for the Fe atom and 6-31G(d,p) for C, H, O, and N atoms. Although the subsystem is reduced dimensionally, the anharmonic frequency and anharmonicity of the CO-stretch mode show excellent agreement with experimental values. We use the revealing noncovalent interaction method to confirm the hydrogen bond between the Hε atom of the His63 and the CO molecule. Our study confirms that the mode coupling between the Fe-CO mode and CO-stretch mode does not exist when the subsystem is free of electric field perturbation, which is coupled when the electric field is -0.5142 V/nm. In addition, with the increases of distance between the active site and the His92, there is no vibrational energy transfer between them when the electric field is 1.028 V/nm. We believe that our work could provide new ideas for increasing the dissociation efficiency of the Fe-CO bond and theoretical references for experimental research.