Influences of aging on thermal decomposition mechanism of high performance oxidizer ammonium dinitramide

Abstract

Ammonium dinitramide (ADN) is one of the several promising new solid propellant oxidizers. ADN is of interest because its oxygen balance and energy content are high, and it also halogen-free. One of the most important characteristics of a propellant oxidizer, however, is stability and ADN is known to degrade to ammonium nitrate (AN) during storage, which will affect its performance. This study focused on the effects of aging on the thermal decomposition mechanism of ADN. The thermal behaviors of ADN and ADN/AN mixtures were studied, as were the gases evolved during their decomposition, using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetry–differential thermal analysis-infrared spectrometry (TG–DTA-IR), and thermogravimetry–differential thermal analysis-mass spectrometry (TG–DTA-MS). The results of these analyses demonstrated that the decomposition of ADN occurs via a series of distinct stages in the condensed phase. The gases evolved from ADN decomposition were N2O, NO2, N2, and H2O. In contrast, ADN mixed with AN (to simulate aging) did not exhibit the same initial reaction. We conclude that aging inhibits early stage, low temperature decomposition reactions of ADN. Two possible reasons were proposed, these being either a decrease in the acidity of the material due to the presence of AN, or inhibition of the acidic dissociation of dinitramic acid by NO 3 − .