Hierarchical nitrogen-doped porous carbon with dual functions for accelerating decomposition and enhancing safety of HMX

Carbon-based catalysts are essential for modulating the thermal decomposition behavior of energetic materials (EMs). In this study, a series of nitrogen-doped porous carbon (CN) materials with different nitrogen contents were successfully prepared by employing the salt-template method. The CN materials exhibit a hierarchical porous structure; partial graphitization further enhances the stability of carbon materials. Then, it was further used for catalyzing the thermal decomposition of cyclotetramethylenetetranitramine (HMX). In particular, CN with nitrogen doping content of 12.34 atom% can advance the exothermic decomposition peak temperature of HMX by approximately 36.14 °C, suppressing the crystal transformation of HMX, and reduce the activation energy by 393.6 kJ·mol −1 . In-situ solid-infrared spectroscopy and TG/IR/MS triple analysis revealed the decomposition mechanism of HMX. Thermal analysis revealed that the effect of high specific surface area and nitrogen doping significantly accelerated the thermal decomposition kinetics of HMX. The combustion performance tests demonstrated that the incorporation of CN material significantly enhanced the combustion completeness of HMX. Mechanical sensitivity tests demonstrated that the addition of CN effectively reduces the impact and friction sensitivity of HMX. The results show that CN materials improve the safety margins for handling of explosive formulations.