Molecular dynamics simulations of melting of perfect crystalline hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-s-triazine

The melting mechanism of superheated perfect crystalline hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-s-triazine (alpha-RDX) has been investigated using molecular dynamics simulations with the fully flexible force field developed by Smith and Bharadwaj [J. Phys. Chem. B 103, 3570 (1999)]. Sequential 50 ps equilibration simulations of the constant stress-constant temperature ensemble were performed at 10 K intervals over the range of 300-650 K, corresponding to a heating rate of 2.0x10(11) K/s. A solid-solid phase transition is observed between 480 and 490 K, followed by melting, which occurs between 500 and 510 K. The solid-solid phase transition, both displacive and rotational, is characterized by an abrupt decrease in the lengths of the unit cell edges a and b and an increase of the length of edge c. The molecular conformation in the new phase is AAE, although the axial nitro groups have different changes: one shift is more axial and the other is more equatorial. Phases other than alpha-RDX have been observed experimentally, however, there are insufficient data for comparisons to ascertain that the new phase observed here corresponds to a real phase. At the high heating rate (2.0x10(11) K/s) used in the simulations, the melted RDX reaches full orientational disorder at about 540 K and translational freedom at around 580 K. If the simulation at the melting temperature (510 K) is run sufficiently long complete rotational freedom is achieved in a few hundreds of picoseconds, while complete translational freedom requires much longer. These results show that given a sufficiently high heating rate, the system can exist for significant periods of time in a near-liquid state in which the molecules are not as free to rotate and diffuse as in the true liquid state. The bond lengths and bond angles undergo little change upon melting, while there are significant changes in the dihedral angles. The molecular conformation of RDX changes from AAE to EEE upon melting. The ramification of this for formulating force fields that accurately describe melting is that it is important that the torsional motions are accurately described. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.