A Relationship between Impact Sensitivity and Molecular Electronegativity

It is shown that statistically significant relationships exist between impact sensitivity and molecular electronegativity for several classes of organic high explosives. These include polynitroaromatic and polynitroaliphatic molecules. The correlations closely follow previous results which utilize the idea of “trigger linkages” (C–NO₂, N–NO₂ or O–NO₂) and oxygen balance. However, the present work provides the possibility of establishing a closer relation between impact sensitivity and electronic structure for the molecules studied. It can also be used to clarify the relationship between the results of previous efforts with these molecules and similar work with other explosives. Through a closer analysis of these correlations it is also shown that the presence of a CO₂ moiety in the molecules affects the impact sensitivity.