Propellants Explosives Pyrotechnics, Vol.32, No.1, 42-51, 2007
Ways to create fuels for stoichiometric gas-generating CHNO-compositions with low ammonium nitrate fraction
The investigation is aimed to study the possibility of the creation of new CHNO-fuels for smokeless stoichiometric gas-generating compositions for airbag inflators. New fuels must have a rather high content of oxygen (to decrease the ammonium nitrate content) as well as a moderate enthalpy of formation in order to prevent an increase of the combustion temperature and of the amount of toxic gases (CO and nitrogen oxides) in the combustion products. Ways to create such new fuels are examined, mainly by introducing low-enthalpy oxygen containing groups together with oxidizing groups (such as NO2, ONO2, NNO2) into molecules. For several hypothetic substances, the enthalpy of formation has been calculated, thermal stability has been qualitatively estimated, combustion temperatures of stoichiometric compositions have been calculated, and possible ways of their synthesis have been considered.
Keywords:airbag;ammonium nitrate;combustion products;combustion temperature;enthalpy of formation;stoichiometric gas-generating compositions