Thermal Analysis of a New Heat-Resistant Energetic Material

4,4'-Dichloro-2,2',3,3',5,5',6,6'-octanitroazobenzene (DCONAB) is a kind of new heat-resistant energetic material. In the paper, its thermal decomposition kinetics was investigated by means of the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The properties of the DCONAB, such as geometry, theoretical density, enthalpy of formation, detonation parameters, were studied by using the density universal culvert theory at the B3LYP/6-31+G (d, p) level. The results indicated that the density distribution of the DCONAB was up to 1.99 g/cm(3) and its detonation rate was close to 8851 m/s. We obtained thermal analysis curves of the DCONAB at different heating rates and we analyzed the kinetic parameters such as activation energy (E-a) and exponential factor (A) with Kissinger and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa methods. Meanwhile, we investigated the decomposition mechanism of the DCONAB with the Satava-Sestak method. The results indicated that the thermal decomposition mechanism of the DCONAB related to nucleation and growth, with the reaction order n being 1. The integral form of the kinetic function was g(alpha) = alpha. The activation energy was 131 kJ/mol and the pre-exponential factor 1.375 x 10(12) min(-1).