Chemical Stability and Thermal Analysis - The use of terms with energetic materials with regard to chemical-thermal decomposition

Energetic materials (EM) tend to decompose in thermodynamically more stable substances. The rate of chemical degradation is not equal for all the types of EM. By experience the so called nitrate esters as nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin, iso-propylnitrate and others are pronounced less stable, means degrade faster, than RDX, HMX, TATB, FOX-7 and others. The reason is found in the chemical structure, in the values of bond dissociation enthalpies and the possibility to be attacked by relative reactive reactants as water, oxygen, acids, and bases. Because the rates of decomposition are largely different, a separation based on the decomposition rates has developed into mainly two groups using own terms, instrumentations and reaction kinetic descriptions. For the assessment of the faster decomposing substances, the general term 'chemical stability' is used. With slow rate decomposing substances, the term 'thermal analyses' is the appropriate one. Both terms fall under the umbrella term ‘chemically based thermal decomposition’, but the distinguishing helps to evidence the difference. Instrumentation and kinetic descriptions will be presented and contextualized. For finding the adequate model to describe the data, the evaluation with regard to lowest number of model parameters is the preferred option, whereby the so-called information criteria can help to find the best model.