Coating and Thermal Kinetic Studies of PETN Particles with Multi‐Wall Carbon Nano Tube‐Triton X‐114 by the Solvent/Nonsolvent Process via Taguchi Design Optimization

Abstract

One way to reduce sensitivity and also adding special properties to explosives is a coating that depends on either the coating agent type or the usage process. In this work, an insensitive nanocomposite of PETN was prepared with multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) and Triton X-114 (TX114) by the solvent/nonsolvent method. Taguchi experimental design (orthogonal array, L 9 ) using impact sensitivity (H 50 ) investigation was applied to the process optimization. The variable effects of MWCNT mass fraction, solvent (acetone) flow rate, surfactant type and surfactant concentration were evaluated and then the re-sults were quantified by the analysis of Variance (ANOVA). ANOVA data predicted the best H 50 was 84.03 � 3.43 cm that was obtained for the optimum conditions of 5.0 wt% MWCNT, 1 mL min À 1 flow rate, TX114 as surfactant with a concentration of 1.0 × 10 À 3 mol Lit À 1 . Practical results of H 50 were obtained 84.0 � 0.5 cm that were in agreement with the predicted H 50 . Finally, thermal analysis and vacuum stability test were applied to the synthesized nanocomposite and the obtained results indicate MWCNT and TX114 are thermal adaptable and chemically compatible with PETN.Keywords: Desensitized PETN · Taguchi design · Impact sensitivity · Thermal analysis · Multi-wall carbon nanotube [a] M.Figure 7. DSC curves with Kissinger plots of PETN (a1-2) and the sensitized nanocomposite (b1-2). Coating and Thermal Kinetic Studies of PETN ParticlesPropellants Explos. Pyrotech. 2019,