Thermal and spectroscopic studies on the decomposition of some aminoguanidine nitrates

Diaminoguanidine nitrate (DAGN) and triaminoguanidine nitrate (TAGN), poten tial energetic materials in emerging propulsion technology with high mass i mpetus at low isochoric flame temperature have been studied as regards kine tics and mechanism of thermal decomposition using thermogravimetry (TG), di fferential thermal analysis (DTA), infrared spectroscopy (IR) and hot stage microscopy. Kinetics of thermolysis has been followed by isothermal TG and IR. For the initial stage of thermolysis of DAGN the best linearity with a correlation coefficient of 0.9976 was obtained for the Avrami-Erofe'ev equ ation, n=2, by isothermal TG. The activation energy was found to be 130 kJ mol(-1) and logA=11.4. The initial stage of thermolysis of TAGN also obeyed the Avrami-Erofe'ev equation, n=2, with a correlation coefficient of 0.997 5 by isothermal TG and the kinetic parameters are E=160.0 kJ mol(-1) and lo gA=16.0. High temperature IR spectra showed exquisite preferential loss in intensity of the NH2, NH, N-N stretching and CNN bending. Spectroscopic and other results favour deamination reaction involving the rupture of the N-N bond as the primary step in the thermal decomposition.