Citation

Koch EC, Cudziło S. Angew Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 2016; 55(49): 15439-15442.

Affiliation

Faculty of Advanced Technologies and Chemistry, Military University of Technology, Sylwestra Kaliskiego 2, 00-908, Warszawa, Polska.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Wiley-VCH)

DOI

10.1002/anie.201609532

PMID

27862760

Abstract

The potential of phosphorus(V) nitride, P3 N5  , as a replacement for red phosphorus, PR , in pyrotechnic obscurants has been theoretically and experimentally investigated. P3 N5 can be safely mixed with KNO3 and even KClO3 and KClO4  . The corresponding formulations are surprisingly insensitive to friction and only mildly impact-sensitive. P3 N5  /KNO3 pyrolants with ξ=20-80 wt % P3 N5 burn 200 times faster than the corresponding mixtures based on PR and generate a dense smoke. Hence obscurants based on P3 N5  /KNO3 have a figure of merit that by far exceeds that of current state-of-the-art PR -based obscurants. Furthermore, unlike PR , which slowly degrades in moist air to phosphoric acids and phosphine (PH3 ), P3 N5 is stable under these conditions and does not produce any acids or PH3  . P3 N5 is hence a safe, stable, and powerful replacement for PR for use in insensitive munitions.

© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Language: en