A DSC Study on the Effect of RDX and HMX on the Thermal Decomposition of Phase Stabilized Ammonium Nitrate

Abstract

Phase stabilized ammonium nitrate(PSAN) was prepared by incorporating copper(II) diammine nitrate in the ammonium nitrate(AN) crystal lattice. The effect of two energetic materials viz., RDX and HMX on the thermal decomposition of PSAN was investigated using DSC. The decomposition temperatures of PSAN and RDX are almost in the same temperature range. The decomposition of PSAN is endothermic and that of RDX is exothermic, while that of a 1:1 mixture of the two is exothermic with a net heat release in excess of that of the individual reactions, which is attributed to the combustion reaction among the decomposition products of PSAN and RDX. Though HMX decomposes at a higher temperature, in presence of molten PSAN a substantial portion of it decomposes at a lower temperature along with PSAN with a net excess heat release, again due to the combustion reaction. The kinetic parameters of the two exothermic decompositions were computed using two equations based on variable heating rate method viz., Kissinger and Ozawa equations. The activation energy obtained from Ozawa method was refined by an iteration procedure. There is a close agreement among the values obtained by the three methods. The kinetic parameters for PSAN-HMX mixture are lower, probably due to the effect of its higher heat release.