Role of Hydrogen Abstraction Reaction in Photocatalytic Decomposition of High Energy Density Materials

Explosive phenomena includes a stunningly wide range of diverse manifestations, such as supernova remnant shocks and solar flares, violent decomposition chemistry and synthesis of superior materials under extreme conditions, weapons, missiles, and high velocity impact damage, fuels for space rocket engines, festive fireworks, and applications of detonation waves in construction industry and microshocks in medicine. With the earliest stages of explosives chemistry in energetic materials remaining poorly understood and constantly posing new science questions, an achievement of a controllable initiation of detonation process represents a particular challenge. Precise tuning of sensitivity to initiation of detonation via photoexcitation appears unreachable because all known secondary explosives are wide band gap insulators. This research demonstrates how YAG:Nd laser irradiation triggers explosive decomposition of PQ-PETN composites formed by pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), high energy density material, mixed with photosensitive 9,10-phenanthrenequinone (PQ). We suggest, explore, and validate a feasible mechanism of photocatalytic decomposition of explosives activated by the laser excitation with the energy of 1.17-2.3 eV and the wavelength of 1064-532 nm. (Chemical Equation Presented).