Estimation of the Critical Temperature of Thermal Explosion for the Highly Nitrated Nitrocellulose Using Non-isothermal DSC

Abstract

Two methods for estimating the critical temperature (T_b) of thermal explosion for the highly nitrated nitrocellulose (HNNC) are derived from the Semenov's thermal explosion theory and two non-isothermal kinetic equations, dα/dt=Af(α)e^−E/RT and dα/dt=Af(α)[1+E/(RT)(1–T_o/T)]e^−E/RT, using reasonable hypotheses. We can easily obtain the values of the thermal decomposition activation energy (E), the onset temperature (T_e) and the initial temperature (T_o) at which DSC curve deviates from the baseline of the non-isothermal DSC curve of HNNC, and then calculate the critical temperature (T_b) of thermal explosion by the two derived formulae. The results obtained with the two methods for HNNC are in agreement to each other.