Assessment of Thermal Stability and Detonation Performance of 4-Amino-1,2,4-triazolium Nitrate as compared to 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene for Melt-cast Explosives

4-Amino-1,2,4-triazolium nitrate (4-ATN) is an energetic and non-sensitive ionic liquid, which was introduced as a good candidate in previous works for the replacement of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) in melt-cast explosives. Since previous studies used pure nitric acid for nitration of 4-ATN, the effect of the use of low price industrial nitric acids (50 %, 70 % and 98 %) is investigated on the percent yields of 4-ATN. The thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetry (TGA/DSC) are done on the synthesized 4-ATN with impure nitric acid at a heating rate of 10 K center dot min(-1) by the vacuum system. The obtained TGA/DSC curves confirm decomposition of 4-ATN involving melting and dissociation. Derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) curves of 4-ATN at various heating rates are applied to obtain activation energy of thermolysis by several model-free techniques. The calculated activation energies are in the range 78.7-87.7 kJ center dot mol(-1), which are about 10 kJ center dot mol(-1) more than the reported activation energy of industrial TNT (purity 98.2 %), i.e. 66-70 kJ center dot mol(-1). Assessments of detonation performance of 4-ATN are also compared with TNT, which show higher detonation performance of 4-ATN. Thus, 4-ATN can be used with nitramine compounds as melt-cast explosives with higher thermal stability and detonation performance than corresponding nitramine compound/TNT explosives.