Chemical Synthesis of Novel Energetic Materials

This research associateship opportunity involves the synthesis of novel energetic materials at the DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory. The project goals include elucidating chemical pathways leading to high density, high oxygen-content energetic materials, synthesizing the materials, and characterizing them using NMR, DSC, IR and small scale sensitivity testing. The chemical space to be explored is centered on nitroguanidine-derived materials with initial work to be performed on sub-gram scale using modern synthetic organic techniques. The Army Research Laboratory Research Associateship Program (ARL-RAP) is designed to significantly increase the involvement of creative and highly trained scientists and engineers from academia and industry in scientific and technical areas of interest and relevance to the Army. This opportunity is part of the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate (WMRD), which focuses on enhancing the lethality and survivability of weapons systems and meeting soldier's technology needs for advanced weaponry and protection through research in energetic materials dynamics, propulsion/flight physics, projectile warhead mechanics, terminal effects phenomena, armor/survivability technologies, environmental chemistry, and advanced materials.