A comparative study on two explosive acetone peroxides

Abstract

Two explosive cyclic acetone peroxides, diacetone diperoxide (DADP) and triacetone triperoxide (TATP) have been studied in respect of thermal decomposition, burning behavior, impact sensitivity, and initiating efficiency. Using the glass Bourdon gauge technique, the vapor pressures of TATP and DADP were determined over the temperature range 75–144°C and 67–120°C, respectively. The kinetic parameters of decomposition of the peroxides in the gas phase have been obtained in the temperature interval of 140–200°C. The decomposition of both DADP and TATP followed the first-order reaction to high degrees of decay with close activation energies of 159.2kJ/mol (38.0kcal/mol) and 165.8kJ/mol (39.6kcal/mol), respectively. The decomposition rate constants of DADP were found to be approximately 2 times less than those of TATP. The linear burning rate of DADP measured in a constant-pressure window bomb appeared to be approximately 5 times less than that of TATP. Temperature profiles in the combustion wave were measured at subatmospheric pressures with the help of thin tungsten-rhenium thermocouples. The leading reaction on combustion of both volatile peroxides was assumed to occur in the gas phase. Kinetic parameters of the leading reaction derived from the combustion data showed a good agreement with kinetic parameters of low-temperature thermal decomposition extrapolated to the high-temperature flame zone. In the drop-weight impact test, DADP appeared to be notably less sensitive peroxide than TATP. No deflagration-to-detonation transition was observed when RDX was attempted to explode by using 0.5g of DADP in the standard detonator No. 8 shell. Comparing explosive properties of the studied peroxides, DADP may be considered as a less dangerous, however still unsafe explosive in handling as TATP.