Thermal Decomposition of Some Organic Lead Compounds

摘要

The pyrolysis of a range of organic lead compounds used as ballistic modifiers has been studied using thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis. The results show that the lead compounds of aliphatic carboxylic acids decompose to lead oxide in one stage which, in air, is largely oxidative in character. The compounds of the aromatic hydroxy acids, however, first yield intermediate basic compounds of varying stability and these ultimately decompose to lead oxide at high temperatures. When heated in nitrogen dioxide vapour the lead compounds react with the gas but the products so formed from the aromatic series were found to ignite below 150 deg C. on further heating in nitrogen dioxide. Differential thermal analysis showed that in these latter cases the initial reaction involving the uptake of NO(2) is exothermal and that this effect can be detected if a propellant containing the lead salt is treated with excess nitrogen dioxide at an elevated temperature.