Synthesis of CL-20 by clean nitrating agent dinitrogen pentoxide

Fine Chemicals Department, School of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology,

Nanjing 210094, P. R. China

E-mail : jyqianhua@yahoo.com.cn              Fax : 86-025-84315030

Manuscript received 15 January 2007, accepted 21 January 2008

CL-20 is a high energy material. It is usually prepared via nitration with concentrated nitric and sulfuric acid, but this technique pollutes the environment. In this article, CL-20 was synthesized with 2,6,8,12 tetraacetylhexaazatetracyclo [5,5,0,0^3,11,0^5,9) dodecane (TAIW) and clean nitrating agent dinitrogen pentoxide. By the use of new nitrating agent, the reaction eliminated the use of concentrated sulfuric acid and was environmental friendly with high atom economy. The structure of the compound was by elemental analysis, IR, ¹H NMR and MS. Meanwhile, the effects of reaction temperature, time and other factors on yield were analyzed. Through the separation of Intermediate, the nitration course and mechanism were also discussed.