Fast neutron activation analysis of high energy materials and polymers

Abstract

Fast neutron activation analysis (FNAA) technique using 14 MeV neutrons has been applied to estimate nitrogen, chlorine, oxygen and aluminium in explosives and propellants. FNAA also has been employed to determine nitrogen, oxygen, chlorine and fluorine in various polymers. The technique is fast, accurate, nondestructive and non-hazardous in analysing elements in explosives and propellants compared to a number of chemical methods which are time consuming, less accurate, suitable for single elemental analysis and do not measure oxygen directly. In this paper FNAA technique, its theory and application for estimation of elements in high energy materials carried out in the laboratories of the authors have been reviewed. The method also helped to determine the differential distribution of aluminium and ammonium perchlorate in aluminized explosives and rocket propellants. Modification of polyepichlorohydrin to polyglycidylazide was followed by FNAA more accurately than IR spectral analysis.