Friction-induced explosive reactions
- The motivation to examine the influence of friction on surfaces of energetic materials (EM) has diverse backgrounds. On the one hand the very old hot spot theory predicts, that the size of such hot spot could be in the range of a molecule. The initiation of an EM could start by mechanical excitation, i.e. friction, and continues driven by an exothermal chemical reaction. Following such phenomena on the molecular scale with an imaging method such as AFM should enable us to separate several steps of ignition, if there are any. The experiments showed that HMX mainly undergoes a plastic deformation without further consequences. TNP however showed self healing in the wear track after scratching and simultaneously the destruction of a crystal edge outside the wear track. Additionally nanoparticles appear, tribologists call this "third body formation", which are proven to have a different chemical composition as the original TNP. The self healing effect on the surface is verified withThe motivation to examine the influence of friction on surfaces of energetic materials (EM) has diverse backgrounds. On the one hand the very old hot spot theory predicts, that the size of such hot spot could be in the range of a molecule. The initiation of an EM could start by mechanical excitation, i.e. friction, and continues driven by an exothermal chemical reaction. Following such phenomena on the molecular scale with an imaging method such as AFM should enable us to separate several steps of ignition, if there are any. The experiments showed that HMX mainly undergoes a plastic deformation without further consequences. TNP however showed self healing in the wear track after scratching and simultaneously the destruction of a crystal edge outside the wear track. Additionally nanoparticles appear, tribologists call this "third body formation", which are proven to have a different chemical composition as the original TNP. The self healing effect on the surface is verified with experiments on self diffusion of TNP molecules to and fro the free edges of the crystal. The conclusion is that the formation of a hot spot can be shown to consist of several subsequent steps, separated temporally and locally. The goal to excite the thermal decomposition of a whole TNP crystal (nanoexplosion) was yet not reached due to unfavourable conditions related to thermal conductivity and build-up of pressure.…