Connecting the chemical composition of a material to its combustion characteristics

Abstract The chemistry in the surface region during combustion of a solid is extraordinarily difficult to determine. Understanding is important because molecules of the parent material break up in this zone to form the initial reactants for the flame. Hence, the surface reaction zone ties the composition of the material to the flame chemistry. The validity of using fast thermolysis of a thin film of the material to simulate the surface reaction zone is assessed. Sub-global chemical details are extracted by the use of rapid-scan Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Such microscale laboratory simulations help establish molecular structure details of nitramines that influence the formation of near-surface flame reactants like NO 2 , HONO, CH 2 O and N 2 O. The effects of pressure and temperature on the surface reaction zone can be probed experimentally. Other infrared spectral methods designed to probe the condensed phase and gas phase are discussed.