Review on Thermal Decomposition of Ammonium Nitrate

Abstract In this review data from the literature on thermal decomposition of ammonium nitrate (AN) and the effect of additives to their thermal decomposition are summarized. The effect of additives like oxides, cations, inorganic acids, organic compounds, phase-stablized CuO, etc., is discussed. The effect of an additive mainly occurs at the exothermic peak of pure AN in a temperature range of 200°C to 140°C. Keywords: additiveammonium nitratedifferential scanning calorimetry (DSC)propellantsthermal decomposition Acknowledgments The authors are grateful to the Chemistry Department of KSKV University, Bhuj, for laboratory facilities. One of the authors (S.C.) is also thankful to CSIR for a Research Associate (RA) fellowship.