Recent research has demonstrated that black carbons catalyze the destruction of a range of nitrated explosives sorbed to the carbon surfaces in the presence of sulfides.  Although surface oxygenated functional groups, particularly quinones, and conductivity have both been hypothesized to promote these reactions, the importance of these properties has not been tested.  In this work, the importance of conductivity was addressed by producing chars of increasing conductivity via pyrolysis of wood shavings at increasing temperature.  The reactivity of chars with respect to destruction of the explosive, RDX, in the presence of sulfides correlated with conductivity.  Oxygenated functional groups were apparently not involved, as demonstrated by the elimination of reactivity of an activated carbon after ozone treatment or sorption of model quinones to the activated carbon surface. Although RDX destruction correlated with char conductivity, no RDX destruction was observed when RDX was physically separated from sulfides but electrically connected through an electrochemical cell. RDX destruction was associated with a surface-associated sulfur species.  The correlation with char conductivity suggests that sulfides are oxidized on carbon surfaces to products that serve as potent nucleophiles promoting RDX destruction.

Role of black carbon conductivity in mediating hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) degradation on carbon surfaces by sulfides

246th National Meeting (2013)

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