Thermal decomposition and thermal stability of potassium 3,3′-dinitrimino-5,5′-bis(1H-1,2,4-triazole)

Potassium 3,3′-dinitrimino-5,5′-bis(1H-1,2,4-triazole) (K₂DNABT), a new potential green primary explosive, was synthesized and characterized by IR spectroscopy, multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The thermal decomposition and thermal stability of K₂DNABT were investigated by the thermogravimetric differential thermal analysis and accelerating rate calorimeter. The thermal decomposition kinetic parameters (apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factor) under non-isothermal condition were calculated by Starink method. The initial decomposition temperature (T_p0) and critical temperature of thermal explosion (T_bp0) were calculated as 279.06 and 298.53 °C, respectively. The apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factor under adiabatic condition were also calculated. The self-heating decomposition started at 280.46 °C and ended at 295.42 °C, within the time span of 162.50 min. The self-accelerating decomposition temperature (T_{SADT, 50kg}) was calculated as 276.55 °C. The detonation velocity (7.59 km s⁻¹) and pressure (27.84 GPa) of K₂DNABT were evaluated by Kamlet–Jacob equations. The superior calculated energetic performance shows that it can be considered as a potential candidate of lead-based primary explosives.