Polymerization Effects on the Decomposition of a Pyrazolo-Triazine at high Temperatures and Pressures

4-amino-3-aminopyrazole-8-trinitropyrazolo-[5, 1-c] [1, 2, 4]triazine (PTX, C₅H₂N₈O₆) has good detonation performance, thermal stability and low mechanical sensitivity, which endow it with good development prospects in insensitive ammunition applications. To study the effects of polymerization on the decomposition of PTX, the reaction processes of PTX at different conditions were simulated by quantum chemistry and molecular dynamics methods. In this paper, the effects of polymerization on the decomposition of PTX were studied in terms of species information, reaction path of PTX, bond formation and bond cleavage, evolution of small molecules and clusters, and kinetic parameters at different stages. The results show that under the high-temperature and high-pressure conditions, the initial reaction path of unimolecular PTX in the thermal decomposition is mainly the cleavage of C−NO₂ bonds. At the same time, there are many polymerization reactions in thermal decomposition process, which may greatly affect the reaction rate and path. The higher the degree of polymerization, the larger equilibrium value of potential energy, the less energy release of thermal decomposition. Compared with the activation energy of other explosives, the activation energy of PTX is higher than that of β-HMX and lower than that of TNT.