Kinetics and mechanism of thermal decomposition of hydroxylammonium nitrate

The kinetics of thermal decomposition of melted hydroxylammonium nitrate have been investigated by the rate of heat production in the temperature range 84.8–120.9°C. The decomposition proceeds with autocatalysis and up to 60 % of conversion the rate of the process increases proportionally to the square of the degree of decomposition. The initial rate is proportional to the square of the concentration of HNO₃ formed due to dissociation of the salt. The activation energy of this process is 15.3±1.8 kcal/mol. It is suggested that the initial stage the process proceeds via interaction between N₂O₃ and NH₃OH⁺, whereas the subsequent acceleration is due to oxidation of NH₃OH⁺ by nitrogen oxides formed as well as by nitrous acid.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 11, pp. 1897–1901, November, 1993.