Investigation of the Phase Stabilizing Effect of Potassium Fluoride on Ammonium Nitrate
Abstract
Ammonium nitrate is an interesting oxidiser in the field of propellants and explosives. The substance is cheap and readily available. The drawbacks of the substance are caused by its polymorphic properties. It crystallizes at ambient pressure in 5 modifications. Some phase transitions take place at temperatures, which occur under normal storage conditions. These transitions are connected with volume changes that influence severely the properties of products containing ammonium nitrate. Many attempts have been made to overcome these difficulties. One of the approaches consist of incorporating different ions into the lattice to change the phase properties. In this context potassium fluoride has been used. The doped ammonium nitrate material must be checked to make sure that no undesired phase transitions and volume changes occur in the interesting temperature interval. A measuring system was built up in the past, which allows automatic measurements of series of diffraction patterns while cycling a sample stepwise through the interesting temperature ranges. The series contain informations about phase transition temperatures and the participating phases. The system was used to investigate the phase properties of ammonium nitrate samples, which were melted with 2 weight % of potassium fluoride. (kt)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA213042
Entities
People
- W. Engel