Abstract
A fatal 2001 explosion at a fertilizer plant in Toulouse, France, was possibly caused by an accidental mixture of sodium dichloroisocyanurate (DCCNa) and ammonium nitrate (AN). In this study, DCCNa was added into AN by the concentration of 0.01%, 0.03%, 0.1%, 0.5% and 1%, respectively. A heat flux calorimetry C80 and an accelerating rate calorimetry (ARC) were used to analyze thermal decomposition of AN and its mixtures. The results showed that the initial decomposition temperature of the mixture decreased markedly compared to that of pure AN. It is considered that DCCNa catalyzes the decomposition of AN through key steps including the synergism between HNO3 and Cl-. Nonetheless, the results of the BAM 50/60 steel tube test did not show visible effect of added DCCNa on the detonation of AN.
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