PREPARATION OF NANO-TATB BY SEMIBATCH REACTION CRYSTALLIZATION

The 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB) nanoparticles were prepared by using semibatch reaction crystallization method, and the influencing factors in close relationship with the grain size and crystal morphology control, such as the concentration of reaction system and categories of surfactants, were studied in this paper. The synthesized nano-TATB particles had been characterized by SEM, XRD, thermo gravimetric/differential scanning calorimetric (TG/DSC) and N 2 physisorption. The grain size of TATB particles using nonionic surfactant as the additive ranged from 30 nm to 65 nm with a shape of spheres or ellipsoids. The broadening of the peaks and the weakening of the strength for nano-TATB were observed by XRD analysis. The corrected average particle size of nano-TATB was calculated using the Debye–Scherrer equation and the range was from 18 nm to 50 nm. TG and DSC curves revealed that thermal decomposition of nano-TATB occurred in the range of 361.5°C–385.0°C and its peak temperature was 373.7°C with a decrease of approximately 7°C compared with original TATB. Furthermore, the specific surface area (21.54 m2/g) of nano-TATB was calculated by BET method using N 2 physisorption (at 77°C).