Mass-Spectrometric Study of the Thermal Decomposition of Ammonium Perchlorate

Abstract

The thermal decomposition of ¹⁴NH₄ClO₄, ¹⁵NH₄ClO₄, and deuterated ammonium perchlorate has been investigated mass spectrometrically. By investigating the decomposition at approximately 10⁻⁴ torr and also at 10⁻⁷ torr in the mass spectrometer inlet system it has been possible to clarify some of the previous conflicting data. This investigation has shown that ammonium perchlorate decomposes into O₂, Cl₂, N₂O in the ratio of 3:2:2 at temperatures below 300°C. Activation energies for the formation of oxygen and chlorine have been calculated to be 28 kcal mole⁻¹ which agree very well with those calculated from conventional constant‐volume decompositions.