A new gas generant for air bags was investigated. Ammonium nitrate (AN) does not give off harmful gases or solid burning residues but goes through contraction and expansion during a series of phase transitions which cause structural damage. In this study, potassium nitrate-phase stabilized ammonium nitrate (PSANKN) was prepared by a nonhazardous aqueous method. Thermal analysis indicated that PSANKN without the phase transition near room temperature was obtained by adding more than 5wt% potassium nitrate. 1H-tetrazole (1HT) was selected because it has a large heat of formation and decomposes by itself in N2 atmosphere and the burning of 1HT/AN mixture has been reported. The melting point, burning rate, gas generation ability by means of 4 L tank test, the mol% and wt% of each generated product, efficiency of gas evolution, wt% of solid products, number of moles of generated gas per 100g of gas generant, wt% of solid products, calorific value of per mole of gas generates, and sensitivities were obtained to evaluate the characteristics that indicate desirable gas generants.
新規ガス発生剤について研究した。硝酸アンモニウムは有害ガスや固体残渣を発生しないが，室温付近に相転移温度があり，結晶系と密度の変化を起こして，ガス発生剤の形状を保つのが困難になる。 この欠点を除くために硝酸カリウムを加えて相安定化した硝酸アンモニウムを用いた。 ５wt％以上の硝酸カリウムを加えると室温付近の相転移のない相安定化硝安が得られた。 燃料は，生成熱が大きく，窒素中で自己分解し，硝酸アンモニウムとの混合物が燃焼する１H-テトラゾールとした。 融点，燃速，４Lタンク試験，各生成物量，ガス発生効率，固体残渣発生率，ガス発生剤100g当たりのガス発生量，発生ガス１モル当たりの発熱量，感度などエアバッグ用ガス発生剤として望ましい特性について検討した。
PSAN, 1H-tetrazole, gas generant, burning rate, 4 L tank test