High-nitrogen-based pyrotechnics: longer- and brighter-burning, perchlorate-free, red-light illuminants for military and civilian applications.

The full-up prototype testing of perchlorate-free, hand-held, signal illuminants for the US Army's M126A1 red star parachute hand-held signal is described. Compared to the perchlorate-containing control, the disclosed illuminants yielded excellent stabilities toward various ignition stimuli while offering superior pyrotechnic performance. Militarily, the illuminants provided further evidence that development of smaller hand-held signal items in an environmentally conscious way is a realistic and obtainable goal. The results are also important from the perspective of civilian fireworks, as the development of brighter, longer-burning, and environmentally compatible red-light-emitting pyrotechnics is now possible.

Physicochemical properties of an insensitive munitions compound, N-methyl-4-nitroaniline (MNA).

Accurate information on physicochemical properties of an organic contaminant is essential for predicting its environmental impact and fate. These properties also provide invaluable information for the overall understanding of environmental distribution, biotransformation, and potential treatment processes. In this study the aqueous solubility (Sw), octanol-water partition coefficient (Kow), and Henry's law constant (K(H)) were determined for an insensitive munitions (IM) compound, N-methyl-4-nitroaniline (MNA), at 298.15, 308.15, and 318.15 K. Effect of ionic strength on solubility, using electrolytes such as NaCl and CaCl2, was also studied. The data on the physicochemical parameters were correlated using the standard Van't Hoff equation. All three properties exhibited a linear relationship with reciprocal temperature. The enthalpy and entropy of phase transfer were derived from the experimental data.

Tris(4-acetamido-phenoxy-methyl)methanol 0.7-hydrate.

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C(28)H(31)N(3)O(7)·0.7H(2)O, contains a mol-ecule of tris-(4-acetamido-phenoxy-meth-yl)methanol and 0.7 of a water mol-ecule. An extensive hydrogen-bonding network includes inter-actions between all components of the crystal structure.

High-nitrogen-based pyrotechnics: development of perchlorate-free green-light illuminants for military and civilian applications.

The development of perchlorate-free hand-held signal illuminants for the US Army's M195 green star parachute is described. Compared with the perchlorate-containing control, the optimized perchlorate-free illuminants were less sensitive toward various ignition stimuli while offering comparable burn times and visible-light outputs. The results were also important from the perspective of civilian fireworks because the development of perchlorate-free illuminants remains an important objective of the commercial fireworks industry.