TATB melting temperature

It is a yellow-brown coloured substance which decomposes rapidly just below its melting temperature. It has excellent thermal stability in the range 260-290 °C and is known as a heat-resistant explosive. Some of the properties of TATB are given in Table 2.17. 

Nine explosives and propellants were subjected to a transient burst of about 1 msec duration which resulted from fission of about 10 atoms of [62]. The materials were tested with 3.6-g samples of TATB, DATE, TACOT, HNS, lead styphnate, black powder, and three composite propellants. The lead styphnate sample detonated, but since the samples were hurled 500 ft by the nuclear excursion there was some question whether this resulted from impact rather than irradiation. The melting point was lowered from 216 to 208°C and the 5-sec explosion temperature (Table XI) was lowered from 299 to 268°C. None of the other materials tested showed evidence of gross radiation damage. 

Figure 20 has been taken from [9] and presents Eq. 8 in which the Ea values resulted from the Russian manometric method for polynitro arenes and Qreai values were calculated according to the Pepekin et al. semi-empirical method [157]. It must be stated that the value of TATB, obtained on the basis of the Russian manometric method (i.e. in vacuum, see [151]) in a temperature region above its hypothetical melting point [171], correlates with the data for thermal decomposition in the Uquid state (this Ea value, which is very close to the heat of sublimation of TATB, is discussed in [171]). The data of TATB obtained from DSC (see [151], i.e. from measurements at atmospheric pressure) logically correlate with DATB and PAM data in Fig. 20. 

TNT is less shock sensitive than TATB and since TNT melts at 82° C it becomes even less shock sensitive than TATB at higher temperatures since it becomes a homogeneous explosive. 

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