Widespread use of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) by civilian and military sectors warrants the investigation of how aging conditions may affect initiation and performance of PETN-based detonators. Powders of PETN held at elevated temperatures evolve to larger particle size and altered chemical composition that affects detonator performance. Addition of stabilizers to PETN powders can slow the rate of change without affecting explosive performance. However, the effects of long-term storage on stabilized PETN at elevated temperatures has not been studied in a large-scale, statistically significant way. Here we describe an aging study on powders of TriPEON-stabilized PETN, at sampling times between 1 to 18 months at three different temperatures of 50, 60, and 75 °C.

Topics
Explosives
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