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Dissociative Electron Attachment to the Nitroamine HMX (Octahydro-1,3,5,7-Tetranitro-1,3,5,7-Tetrazocine)

  • Research Article
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Journal of The American Society for Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

In the present study, dissociative electron attachment (DEA) measurements with gas phase HMX, octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine, C4H8N8O8, have been performed by means of a crossed electron-molecular beam experiment. The most intense signals are observed at 46 and 176 u and assigned to NO2 − and C3H6N5O4 −, respectively. Anion efficiency curves for 15 negatively charged fragments have been measured in the electron energy region from about 0–20 eV with an energy resolution of ~0.7 eV. Product anions are observed mainly in the low energy region, near 0 eV, arising from surprisingly complex reactions associated with multiple bond cleavages and structural and electronic rearrangement. The remarkable instability of HMX towards electron attachment with virtually zero kinetic energy reflects the highly explosive nature of this compound. Substantially different intensity ratios of resonances for common fragment anions allow distinguishing the nitroamines HMX and royal demolition explosive molecule (RDX) in negative ion mass spectrometry based on free electron capture.

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Notes

  1. Please note that numerical values of the measured anion yields for all fragments presented in this study will be also available in the Virtual Atomic and Molecular Data Centre (VAMDC) -compliant Innsbruck Dissociative Electron Attachment Database (IDEADB: http://ideadb.uibk.ac.at).

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF), P22665 and I978, Wien, the European Commission, Brussels, via COST Action CM0805 programme “The Chemical Cosmos”. FFS acknowledges the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT-MEC) for post-doctoral scholarships SFRH/BPD/68979/2010 and together with PL-V acknowledge the PEst-OE/FIS/UI0068/2011 grant. M.M.G. acknowledges the National Council for the Improvement of Higher Education (CAPES), process no. 4752/11-2, the Foundation for Research Support of Minas Gerais State (FAPEMIG), and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). The authors gratefully acknowledge the defusing section of the ministry of interior that provided us with HMX samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Technikerstr. 25 / 3, A-6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Johannes Postler, Marcelo M. Goulart, Carolina Matias, Andreas Mauracher, Paul Scheier & Stephan Denifl

  2. Laboratório de Colisões Atómicas e Moleculares, CEFITEC, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516, Caparica, Portugal

    Filipe Ferreira da Silva & Paulo Limão-Vieira

  3. CAPES Foundation, Ministry of Education of Brazil, Brasilia, DF, 70040-020, Brazil

    Marcelo M. Goulart

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  1. Johannes Postler
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Correspondence to Paulo Limão-Vieira or Stephan Denifl.

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Postler, J., Goulart, M.M., Matias, C. et al. Dissociative Electron Attachment to the Nitroamine HMX (Octahydro-1,3,5,7-Tetranitro-1,3,5,7-Tetrazocine). J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 24, 744–752 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13361-013-0588-y

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