Thermal reaction behavior of 'red oil' decomposition products with HNO₃

'Red oil' is generally thought to consist of TBP with its degradation products, saturated with extracted heavy metal nitrates and HNO₃. The thermal runaway reaction of above system is mainly responsible for 'red oil' explosion accident. In this work, the 'red oil' was studied from another perspective: the thermal reaction behavior of several 'red oil' decomposition products, including butanol, butyric acid, butyl ether and butyl butyrate, with HNO₃. The main liquid and gas components were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed by GC/MS. It is found the reaction between butanol and HNO₃ has a similar behavior to that between TBP and HNO₃, which also produces 'red oil'-like substances. It suggests that butanol may play a critical role in 'red oil' explosion. (author)