which cold crystallization was observed after devitrification (see
Fig. 1). Clearly, the work from May et al. [20] and that of the present
study show that TNT can be vitrified and that the details of the
vitrification–devitrification path lead to changes in the thermal
response of the material because the crystallization response is
dependent on this path. How this thermal behavior might affect
the behavior of TNT in use is probably not very important because
near ambient storage and use temperatures for TNT are above the
devitrification temperature and crystallization would be expected
to occur. However, it is possible that other energetic materials having
higher values of Tg could exhibit a change in performance either
by, e.g., a changed defect density due to the glassy state itself, or due
to the heat flow response (calorimetric response) changing during
the heating cycle required for ignition or detonation of these materials.
Clearly, further investigation is warranted to examine these
possibilities.