Influence of Activated Carbon on the Thermal Decomposition of Hydroxylammonium Nitrate

Abstract

This paper presents experimental results for the thermal decomposition of hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN) in the presence of activated carbon with a high specific surface (up to 3000 m2/g) obtained by activation of rice husk with potassium hydroxide at a temperature of 700°C in a rotating spherical furnace. The addition of activated carbon reduces the temperature of the onset of decomposition of HAN from 185 to 86 ± 0.5°C. The burning rate of HAN doped with activated carbon increases to 400 mm/s at an overpressure of 6 MPa. It has been shown that the addition of activated carbon reduces the amount of NO x gases produced by decomposition to 30%.