Investigating the Kinetics of the Thermolysis of 3-nitro-2,4-dihydro-3H-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO) and Reduced Size NTO the Presence of Cobalt Ferrite Additive

Abstract Less sensitive high energetic materials (HEMs) are explored as a potential replacement of highly sensitive HEMs in propellants, and explosive applications. More research have been devoted to improve the thermal decomposition of such a less sensitive HEMs. Nanosize Cobalt ferrite (CoF) has been successfully synthesized using the co-precipitation method. Synthesis of less sensitive HEM 3-nitro-2,4-dihydro-3H-1,2,4-triazol-5-one(NTO) and its size reduction using solvent-antisolvent method is successfully achieved. Effect of 5 % by weight CoF on the thermolysis of NTO and NTO with reduced size (r-NTO) has been studied using the simultaneous thermal analysis. Three isoconversional methods namely Flynn Ozawa Wall, Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS), and Starink are employed to evaluate the kinetic parameter of NTO, and r-NTO in the presence of CoF additive. It was found that both the addition of CoF as well as reducing size of NTO can decrease the thermal decomposition temperature of NTO, the later decreasing the thermal decomposition temperature to a good extent compared to former. However, the kinetic study using isoconversional methods suggested that in the presence of CoF additive, the activation energy of both NTO as well as n-NTO is increased.