THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS OF SOME NITRAMINES, NITROSAMINES AND NITROESTERS

Four nitrosamines, seven nitramines, three nitroesters and the explosi ves Semtex 10 and Composition B have been investigated. The thermal re activity of the compounds was studied by thermogravimetric analysis (T GA). Linear dependence was confirmed between the position of the TGA o nsets, as defined in the sense of Perkin-Elmer's TGA-7 Standard Progra m, and the samples weights. The slope of this dependence is closely re lated to the thermal reactivity and molecular structure. The intercept values of the dependence correlate with the autoignition temperatures and with the critical temperatures of the studied compounds, without any clear influence from their molecular structure in this case. The r esults obtained show that Semtex 10 exhibits approximately the same th ermostability as its active component, PETN. The results also show tha t TGA data for Composition B do not correlate with analogous data for pure nitramines.