ABSTRACT
To improve understanding of the unimolecular decomposition mechanism of 1,2,4-butanetriol trinitrate (BTTN) in the gas phase, density functional theory calculations were performed to determine various decomposition pathways at the B3LYP/6-311G** level. Two main mechanisms for the unimolecular decomposition of BTTN were found. In the first, homolysis of one of the O-NO2 bonds occurs to form â¢NO2 and CH2ONO2CHONO2CH2CH2Oâ¢, which subsequently decomposes to form CH3CHO + â¢CHO + 3NO2 + HCHO. In the second, successive HONO elimination reactions yield three HONO and OHCCH2CHONO2CH2ONO2 fragments, which subsequently decompose to form CH3CHO + 2CO + 3HONO. We also found that the first pathway has a slightly lower activation energy than the second. The results show that the pathway involving O-NO2 cleavage is slightly more energetically favorable than that involving HONO elimination.
