The high-pressure phase behavior and compressibility of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene

The phase stability and isothermal compression behavior of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) have been established to 26.5 GPa using angle-dispersive x-ray diffraction. P-V isotherms derived from the high-pressure x-ray spectra displayed a slight density hysteresis around 4.0 GPa and a sharp discontinuity at ∼20.0 GPa. The latter transition is ascribed to a monoclinic-to-orthorhombic first-order phase transition in TNT. The conversion of the isothermal P-V data to the shock velocity-particle velocity plane revealed a deviation from linearity at low up, a cusp associated with the phase transition at high up, and general agreement with the wealth of unreacted Hugoniot data on TNT.