Ultrafast Detonation of Hydrazoic Acid ()
Open Access
- 17 July 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 109 (3), 038301
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.109.038301
Abstract
The fastest self-sustained chemical reactions in nature occur during detonation of energetic materials where reactions are thought to occur on nanosecond or longer time scales in carbon-containing materials. Here we perform the first atomistic simulation of an azide energetic material, , from the beginning to the end of the chemical evolution and find that the time scale for complete decomposition is a mere 10 ps, orders of magnitude shorter than that of secondary explosives and approaching the fundamental limiting time scale for chemistry; i.e., vibrational time scale. We study several consequences of the short time scale including a state of vibrational disequilibrium induced by the fast transformations.
Keywords
Funding Information
- U.S. Department of Energy
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