Thermal decomposition behaviors and reaction mechanism of emulsion explosive with the addition of TiH2 powders

To explore compatibility and thermal stability of the emulsion explosive added with TiH 2 powders, the actions of TiH 2 powders on the thermal decomposition properties, reaction product compositions of the emulsion explosives were researched by TGA-FTIR, TG-DSC, XRD and XPS. The results manifested that the adding of 7.6 μm TiH 2 powders in the range of 2–8 mass% could reduce the initial decomposition temperature of the emulsion explosive and promote the thermal decomposition reaction. The apparent activation energies of pure emulsion explosive sample were 110.5 and 107.05 kJ/mol, respectively. When the addition of 7.6 μm TiH 2 powders to emulsion explosive was 2 mass%, the apparent activation energy decreased to the minimum value, which were 100.1 and 95.9 kJ/mol, respectively. While the initial decomposition temperatures and the activation energies of explosive samples added with TiH 2 powders with particle sizes of 33.7, 50.1 and 120.0 μm both continued to rise. Furthermore, based on the experimental results, the thermolysis mechanism of emulsion explosive added with TiH 2 powders was proposed. This study is helpful to further understand the thermolysis properties and reaction mechanism of emulsion explosives containing TiH 2 powders, and offer theoretic direction for the formulation optimization as well as industrial production of high-energetic emulsion explosives.