Studies on the thermal behavior and safety of a novel thermostable explosive BPTAP

Thermal decomposition of a highly thermostable explosive dihydroxylammonium 2,4,8,10-tetranitro-benzopyrido-1,3a,6,6a-tetraazapentalene (BPTAP) was studied using conventional thermal analysis techniques (Thermal Gravimetric Analysis and Differential Scanning Calorimetry). To obtain more comprehensive insight into the kinetics mechanism of BPTAP decomposition, thermoanalytical experiments were performed under non-hermetic and hermetic conditions. Several widely used thermoanalytical data processing techniques based on model-free kinetics (Flynn–Wall–Ozawa, Kissinger, Freidman, numerical optimization) were studied and compared. Furthermore, to fully understand the thermal safety property of BPTAP, the kinetic model and the kinetic parameters were evaluated based on the non-isothermal DSC data by using a non-linear optimization method. The kinetic models of thermal decomposition of BPTAP under non-hermetic and hermetic conditions were different, which were identified as the generalized autocatalysis reaction and two parallel generalized autocatalysis reactions, respectively. On the basis of the aforementioned study, two important safety parameters including the time to maximum rate under adiabatic conditions and self-accelerating decomposition temperature for BPTAP in DEWAR were calculated and discussed.