Reaction kinetics of mixture of nitromethane and detonator confined in carbon nanotube

Abstract

Bursting of nanobombs with co-encapsulating detonating molecule and nitromethane (NM) inside a carbon nanotube (CNT) has been investigated via nonequilibrium reactive molecular dynamics (NERMD) with density functional theory (DFT) calculation. The target detonating molecules were screened by using Kamlet–Jacobs (K–J) equations. The detonating molecules (i.e., HMX and RDX) exhibited a much higher decomposition rate than NM and contributed to the accelerated decomposition of NM. Subsequently, the CNT nanocontainer functionalized by reaction intermediates burst. The bursting time was shortened by detonating molecules, as predicted by DFT calculations. The overall reaction mechanism did not differ significantly with or without detonating molecules.