Investigation of 2,2,2-trinitroethyl-nitrocarbamate as a high energy dense oxidizer and its mixture with Nitrocellulose (thermal behavior and decomposition kinetics)

Abstract

Thermal behavior and decomposition kinetics of the new interesting high energy dense oxidizer (HEDO) 2,2,2-trinitroethyl-nitrocarbamate (TNENC) and its propellant formulation based on nitrocellulose (NC) as a binder was investigated using nonisothermal thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). TNENC has been prepared and characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to study the molecular structure of TNENC. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to check the homogeneity of the new propellant formulation (NC-TNENC). The burning behavior of the prepared NC-TNENC was recorded by high speed camera to observe the smoke produced. A high specific impulse (Is=244.46s) was obtained from the characteristics calculation of the new propellant formulation by using EXPLO5_V6.03 software. The kinetic parameters of the studied samples were determined by using isoconversional (model-free) methods Kissinger, Ozawa and Flynn–Wall (OFW) and Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS). The results proved that TNENC melts at temperature of 110.5°C and has a maximum decomposition peak temperature at 166.4°C, also it has activation energy in the range of 104–106kJmol−1. The prepared NC-TNENC didn’t show any endothermic peak and its exothermic peak was at 200.8°C which means that a composite might be formed during the chemical mixing of TNENC with NC. The activation energy of the prepared NC-TNENC was in the range of 176–181kJmol−1. TNENC required experimental performance measurements to proof the possibility of replacing the nitroglycerine in a smokeless double base propellant.