New munition compounds have been developed to replace traditional high explosives to prevent the unintended detonations during transport, manufacture and handle. 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN) and NTO (3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one) are two main important ingredients in insensitive munitions (IMs) IMX-101 and IMX-104. However, IMs often leave large proportion of unexploded residue in the field, raising serious issues concerning environmental impact of new IMs residue in fire training field. To better understand the photochemical process of IMs formulation in nature, we proposed to conduct the outdoor photo-transformation and dissolution experiment of IMX-101 and IMX-104 and systematically simulate the real environmental conditions in this study. The main objectives of our study were to: (1) Study the photolysis/dissolution process of IMX-101 and IMX-104; (2) Determine the main photodegradation intermediates and products of different IMs and elucidate the underlying their photolytic mechanism in nature; (3) Predict environmental behavior and toxicity of main transformation products. The major goal was to achieve comprehensive evaluation on photochemical behavior of IMs munition formulation in natural conditions. Results showed that IM constituents dissolved in order of their solubility, with which the most soluble compounds dissolved in rainfall effluent first. The main identified IMs photo-transformation products are consistent with computation modeling prediction results. Especially, the main transformation products of DNAN including methoxy-nitrophenols and methoxy-nitroanilines were quantified. Toxic effect of the parent munition compounds and the transformation products were also evaluated by Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) to estimate the ecotoxicity impact. Our study could improve better understanding of IMs environmental behavior and predict ecological risk associated with new insensitive munition formulation.

Outdoor photolysis and dissolution of insensitive munition formulation IMX-101 and IMX-104: Transformation pathway and mechanism study

256th National Meeting (2018)

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