The last decades have been characterized by ongoing efforts in the defense industry to identify and synthetize traditional energetics compounds (i.e. TNT, RDX, HMX) with more stable or “insensitive” formulations; in particular, nitropyrazoles have attracted increasing attention due to their simpler synthesis. In this scenario, the energetic compound 3,4-dinitropyrazole (DNP) has become a focus of interest for its ability to be melt-cast due to good thermal stability and high insensitivity. In particular, the density of DNP (1.81 g cm−3) as well as its detonation performance are higher than TNT, which makes it a promising candidate to replace the obsolete energetic. Nevertheless, DNP is characterized by extremely high aqueous solubility (1.3-2.0 g/L) which may lead to significant concentrations in energetic-laden wastewater streams from industrial munitions base facilities. As such, the evaluation of effective treatment techniques is imperative in order to secure effective and environmentally compliant production processes. The effectiveness of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) is well known as they have been widely studied and successfully applied to the treatment of persistent organic pollutants as well as explosive compounds (e.g. nitrotoluenes, nitramines and nitrophenols) including pyazroles (e.g. 3-nitro-l, 2,4-triazol-5-one, (NTO)). In the present study, synthetic DNP solutions were treated using UV-assisted persulfate (PS) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The selected AOPs were investigated by comparing the degradation efficiency for DNP on a bench scale under different parametric conditions (i.e. pH, oxidant dosage). The degradation kinetics of DNP under different treatment conditions following identification and quantification of the carbon/nitrogen by-products will be discussed. Overall, the experimental results obtained from application of selected processes showed that both UV/PS and UV/H2O2 were highly effective in achieving degradation of the target DNP.

Evaluation of UV/persulfate and UV/H2O2 for degradation of novel energetic 3,4 dinitropyrazole (DNP)

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