Estimation of the Critical Temperature of Thermal Explosion for the Highly Nitrated Nitrocellulose Using Non-isothermal DSC

Abstract

Two methods for estimating the critical temperature (Tb) of thermal explosion for the highly nitrated nitrocellulose (HNNC) are derived from the Semenov's thermal explosion theory and two non-isothermal kinetic equations, dα/dt=Af(α)e−E/RT and dα/dt=Af(α)[1+E/(RT)(1–To/T)]e−E/RT, using reasonable hypotheses. We can easily obtain the values of the thermal decomposition activation energy (E), the onset temperature (Te) and the initial temperature (To) at which DSC curve deviates from the baseline of the non-isothermal DSC curve of HNNC, and then calculate the critical temperature (Tb) of thermal explosion by the two derived formulae. The results obtained with the two methods for HNNC are in agreement to each other.