Calorimetric Studies on the Thermal Stability of 2-Nitrotoluene Explosives with Incompatible Substances

Abstract

The decomposition of 2-nitrotoluene with five incompatibles (sodium sulfate, sodium carbonate, sodium chloride, calcium chloride, and iron(III) oxide) has been studied in an ARSST calorimeter under pseudoadiabatic conditions. All five incompatibles lower the detected "onset" temperature of 2-NT with iron(III) oxide having the largest impact. Other important thermal parameters such as maximum temperature reached during the reaction, adiabatic temperature rise, maximum self-heat rate, temperature at maximum self-heat rate, maximum pressure rise rate, and moles of noncondensable gas (NCG) are reported. The possible mechanisms to explain the influences of the additive have been proposed, and they can be summarized into three categories: generation of OH − , impact of chloride ions, and iron(III) oxide-catalyzed reduction of nitroarenes.