U.S. Army Research Laboratory scientists have manufactured a new material for propulsion and lethality applications in an effort to help address the impacts of bullet and shrapnel on humans.Jesse Sabatini, team leader of the energetics synthesis team within ARL’s weapons and materials research directorate, collaborated with Leah Wingard, Eric Johnson and Pablo Guzman to synthesize the bis-isoxazole tetranitrate material, the Army said Tuesday.
“BITN has a strong potential for improving insensitive munitions characteristics for gun and rocket propellants” said Sabatini.
Sabatini explained that insensitive munitions explode as intended to destroy targets while enduring mechanical shocks, fire and shrapnel impact due to its stable chemical nature.
Army scientists are working to create derivatives of BITN in order to develop denser, higher-performing energetic materials for propellants and explosives.
“In assessing whether BITN and its derivatives are suitable targets to be synthesized, we have been consulting with colleagues at the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama,” Sabatini said.
