Compatibility and thermal decomposition behavior of an epoxy resin with some energetic compounds

Abstract

ABSTRACT For developing a new explosive formulation, a compatibility of polymeric binder with energetic compound is of most important in the pre-formulation stage. In this article, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) method, according to STANAG 4147, was used to examine compatibility of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) with selected explosive compounds especially 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane (RDX), l,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX) and 2,4,6,8,10,12 hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane (CL-20). Furthermore, the thermal decomposition behavior of the binary mixture was also studied by thermogravimetry. Results show that the epoxy resin (ER) possessed a good compatibility with both HMX and CL-20, while it showed a bad compatibility with RDX, according to STATNG 4147. The kinetics for the thermal decomposition reaction was also investigated through the Kissinger method using peak temperature obtained from DSC curves at different heating rates. The apparent activation energy for the RDX/ER, HMX/ER and CL-20/ER samples was obtained around 273.9, 299.3 and 166.3 kJ mol−1 with pre-exponential factor (A) value of 1.8 × 1029, 1.9 × 1028 and 9.3 × 1016 s−1, respectively.