A novel, an environmentally friendly process of green recrystallization was employed to prepare TATB nanoparticles. The process was named as solvent/anti-solvent technique using the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([Emim] Ac) combined with DMSO as solvent, distilled water as an anti-solvent. The characteristic properties of nano-TATB thus obtained were confirmed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), particle size analysis. Moreover, the thermal decomposition properties and impact sensitivity were conducted and analyzed. Results show that the recrystallized TATB particles with a spherical shape range from 30 nm to 100 nm. The XRD pattern of recrystallized TATB is in good agreement with the raw TATB, indicating that this recrystallization process does not change the crystal type of TATB. The recrystallized TATB has a remarkable thermal stability in spite of the low temperature of exothermic peak than the raw TATB at various heating rates. The drop height of recrystallized TATB is higher than 100 cm, revealing that the nano-TATB particles exhibit outstanding insensitive characteristic.
TATB, ionic liquid, anti-solvent recrystallization, nanoparticles, thermal decomposition