Experimental Study of the Oxidative Degradation of PBX 9501 and its Components

摘要

The results of the constituent aging study (CAS) are given, where low-temperature (T<64℃) aging experiments were performed on over 1100 closed-container samples of various combinations of the components of the plastic-bonded explosive PBX 9501. Experiments were performed on the various combinations both in the absence and presence of free-radical stabilizers. The product gases were identified and quantified as a function of aging time. The gas data show diverse chemistry between CAS samples and initial linear increases in product gas formation. Temperature analysis of the initial production rates of gas products shows straight Arrhenius plots. The extracted activation energies and frequency factors for the formation of the individual gas products yield a single linear kinetic compensation plot suggesting a common degradation pathway for PBX 9501 and combinations of constituents that contained nitroplasticizer (a eutectic mixture of bis-2,2-dintropropyl acetal and bis-2,2-dintropropyl formal).