This work introduces laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) as a novel, cheap and non‐destructive method to study the changes of mechanical properties of plastic bonded explosives (PBX) during their aging. Accelerated aging was used in three different temperatures 60, 70, and 80 °C to obtain different aged samples. The measurements of mechanical properties analysis were also done on the aged samples to validate the resulted data from LIBS spectroscopy. LIBS tests were done in both air and argon atmosphere, in which molecular bands such as CN and C2 radiation were compared for all aged samples. In order to more accurate discrimination between spectra of different samples, principal component analysis (PCA) was used as a suitable chemometric method. All these results represent the changes in the chemical structure of specimens, which are due to increasing time and temperature during their aging processes.

Plastic Bonded Explosives (PBXs) are explosive materials, in which sensitive explosive powders with high detonation performance are bound together in a matrix using small quantities of a synthetic polymer. They provide good thermal stability and improve cook-off properties with negligible shrinkage. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been introduced as a novel method for assessment of thermal aging in PBXs. Thermal aging of fifteen samples of PBXs with the same composition has been studied in two temperatures 60 and 70°C for 5 period times during 29 d. Dynamical