Thermal decomposition and thermal stability of potassium 3,3′-dinitrimino-5,5′-bis(1H-1,2,4-triazole)

Abstract

Potassium 3,3′-dinitrimino-5,5′-bis(1H-1,2,4-triazole) (K2DNABT), a new potential green primary explosive, was synthesized and characterized by IR spectroscopy, multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The thermal decomposition and thermal stability of K2DNABT were investigated by the thermogravimetric differential thermal analysis and accelerating rate calorimeter. The thermal decomposition kinetic parameters (apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factor) under non-isothermal condition were calculated by Starink method. The initial decomposition temperature (Tp0) and critical temperature of thermal explosion (Tbp0) were calculated as 279.06 and 298.53 °C, respectively. The apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factor under adiabatic condition were also calculated. The self-heating decomposition started at 280.46 °C and ended at 295.42 °C, within the time span of 162.50 min. The self-accelerating decomposition temperature (TSADT, 50kg) was calculated as 276.55 °C. The detonation velocity (7.59 km s−1) and pressure (27.84 GPa) of K2DNABT were evaluated by Kamlet–Jacob equations. The superior calculated energetic performance shows that it can be considered as a potential candidate of lead-based primary explosives.