Experimental and theoretical studies on stability of new stabilizers for N-methyl-P-nitroaniline derivative in CMDB propellants

Abstract

Although N-methyl-P-nitroaniline (MNA) was a quite effective stabilizer in composite modified double base (CMDB) propellants, it undergoes crystallization easily from nitroglycerin (NG) during storage. In order to improve its solubility in nitroglycerin (NG) and the stability in propellants, several new stabilizers including N-ethyl-p-nitroaniline (ENA), N-n-propyl-p-nitroaniline (n-PNA), N-i-propyl-p-nitroaniline (i-PNA), N-n-butyl-p-nitroaniline (n-BNA) and N-t-butyl-p-nitroaniline (t-BNA) were designed and synthesized to replace MNA by increasing the carbon chain length. The interaction between NG and different stabilizers was simulation by Materials Studio 5.5 and the stability and the high temperature stability performance of those new stabilizers in propellants were calculated by Gaussian 09. It was found that both the solubility of new stabilizers in NG and the stability and the high temperature stability performance of those in propellants were improved when the carbon chain length of substitution groups on nitrogen atom was increased. Thus, the n-BNA was a most potential stabilizer. Then all properties of the stabilizers were studied experimentally, which was agreement well with the theoretical analysis.