THE INFLUENCE OF CHEMICAL-STRUCTURE ON EXOTHERMIC DECOMPOSITION

Exothermic decomposition capability depends on the chemical structure of a substance. There are several functional groups which tend to make a material exhibit exothermic decomposition. We have tried to establish a correlation between decomposition energies and the involved functional groups. The evaluated decomposition energies were found in the literature or come from our own DSC measurements. The result is that many functional groups can be associated with typical decomposition energies. Functional groups also influence the temperature region of exothermic decomposition, but the dependence of the onset temperature of decomposition with respect to chemical structure cannot be determined as precisely as the corresponding dependence of decomposition energy. Certain functional groups have typical onset temperatures of decomposition which are influenced by other substituents. For nitro compounds in particular, data have been found in temperature regions typical for the various additional substituents.