Energetic materials:: variable-temperature crystal structure of β-NTO

The crystal structure of the metastable beta form of 5-nitro-2,4-dihydro-3H-1,2,4-triazol-3-one (beta-NTO, monoclinic, P2(1)/c) has been investigated at five temperatures in the range 100-298 K using single-crystal X-ray diffraction techniques. The second-rank thermal expansion tensor has been determined to describe thermal behavior of the crystal. The most significant thermal expansion is in a plane, which is almost perpendicular to the planes of all the NTO molecules. Perpendicular to the plane of maximal thermal expansion, a modest thermal contraction takes place. Both thermal expansion and contraction of the crystal lattice indicate anharmonicity of the atomic thermal motion. The experimental thermal variation of the unit-cell parameters is in qualitative agreement with that previously obtained from molecular dynamics calculations. Rigid-body analysis of the molecular thermal motion was performed using the libration and translation second-rank tensors. Although the translation part of the thermal motion is not strongly anisotropic, the largest displacements of the NTO molecules are oriented in the plane of maximal thermal expansion of the crystal and have significant anharmonic components. The libration motion is more anisotropic, and the largest libration as well as the largest translation principal axes are directed along the C5-N5 bond in each NTO molecule.