Recent Developments in the Continuous Synthesis of Nitrate Esters

Here we present our recent developments in the synthesis of nitrate esters. First, we show the process development for the synthesis of glycidyl nitrate from glycerol. The key parameters are identified with the objective of optimizing the process. Second, we show the synthesis of 2-nitratoethyl acrylate, which can be used for 3D printing of energetic materials. It turned out that the work up of the product was the most challenging part, because otherwise there would be a spontaneous polymerization. Both syntheses could be performed in a laboratory-scale flow setup.