The explosive performance of ϵ‐CL‐20 was found to be approximately 14% greater than HMX as determined by cylinder expansion and tantalum plate acceleration experiments. This makes it the most powerful explosive ever tested at small volume expansions of the detonation products. In general CL‐20 is more sensitive than HMX. However, the sensitivity of CL‐20 to one‐dimensional shock loading was found to be similar to HMX.

The heat of detonation of an explosive is determined by its chemical structure and the nature of the products that are formed during detonation. Most explosives contain the elements CHNO and, because plastic bonded explosives often include stable halocarbon polymers, the elements fluorine and/or chlorine may also be present. However, little is known about the effect of the combination of fluorine and sulfur on heat of detonation, specifically the SF5 group. Detonation calorimetry was the experimental technique used to determine the heat and very unusual products of detonation of tris‐(fluorodinitroethyl) pentafluorothio ethylorthocarbonate.

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The solubility of the epsilon polymorph of CL‐20 was determined in thirteen liquids over the temperature range of ambient to 74°C using high performance liquid chromatography. The experiments included ϵ‐CL‐20 produced by two different synthesis routes; one lot contained a higher level of polymorphic impurity, the other lot contained a higher level of non‐CL‐20 impurity.In general, the ϵ‐CL‐20 was found to be highly soluble in the solvents with carbonyl groups, and relatively insoluble in hydrocarbons and materials containing ether linkages. The amount of phase conversion to γ‐CL‐20 which occured during the solubility testing was measured using FTIR, and ranged from essentially zero to ∼ 10% conversion. It appears that the presence of β‐CL‐20 in the virgin ϵ‐CL‐20 lots will affect the amount of gamma‐phase present in the final residue.

A bomb calorimeter for measuring the heat of detonation of 25 g charges of high explosive is described. A complete calorimetric measurement can be made in 1 h with a precision of 0.3%. Calorimetric measurements and analysis for PETN are described. The data are interpreted with the aid of thermodynamic and hydrodynamic computer calculations. For unconfined or lightly confined charges, the released energy is largely retained in the products which are shocked considerably off the Chapman-Jouguet isentrope by reflections from the bomb wall. For heavily confined charges, the energy is largely converted to kinetic and internal energy of the confining case, and the essentially unshocked products expand along the Chapman-Jouguet isentrope. The products of detonation are found to freeze out at 1500 to 1800°K. The heat of detonation of PETN at 298°K is 1490±6 cal/g, H2O(l).

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