Understanding the thermal stability of energetic materials

摘要

Before a new energetic material can go into general use-- manufacture, formulation, storage, and transportation--its thermal stability must be thoroughly understood. If a compound or class has poor stability, early recognition and understanding of this deficiency may guide further development. Our general approach is to study a class of compounds looking for common trends. The first step is to roughly assess thermal stability by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). This technique requires only a tiny amount of sample to identify the temperature range of interest. Use of sealed quartz capillary tubes for DSC precludes reaction with the container but may allow auto-catalysis.