Surface modification of ammonium nitrate by coating with surfactant materials to reduce hygroscopicity

Ammonium nitrate (AN) is promising oxidizer in green propellants. In this work, the physical coating method was improved to modify the surface of ammonium nitrate particles with different surfactant materials to reduce hygroscopicity. Cetylalcohol, stearic acid, stearyl alcohol, palmic acid, lauric acid, stearsmide, tetradecylamine, dodecylamine, and tetradecanol were used as coating surfactant agents. The hygroscopicity was tested for ammonium nitrate with and without coating. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the surface of coated and uncoated ammonium nitrate. The mass ratio of coating layer and decline of absorption rate of ammonium nitrate coated by cetylalcohol were 1.00%, and 28.40%, respectively. The results indicate that coating with cetylalcohol surfactant have advantages over the other surfactants in term of low mass ratio of coating layer, and high decline of moisture absorption rate. Thus, cetylalcohol would be a promising coating surfactant material for ammonium nitrate. The idea and approach presented in this study have potential to made hydrophobic layer on the surface of particles to reduce hygroscopicity of AN, and also help the researcher to improving anti-hygroscopicity of ammonium salts.