Kinetics and mechanism of thermal decomposition of HMX with metal cupferronate additives

The kinetic features of the thermal decomposition of HMX with metal cupferronate additives, in which the nucleophilic detachment of a proton in HMX by a phenylnitric-oxide anion-radical plays an important role, are established. The logarithms of the rate constants for the decomposition of HMX correlate with the ratio of the charge of the metal cation in the cupferronate to its radius, which indicates a different reactivity of the anion-radical owing to the polarizing effect of the cation.