Small-Scale Detonation of Industrial Urea-Hydrogen Peroxide (UHP)

The adduct of Urea and Hydrogen Peroxide (UHP), also called Carbamide Peroxide, is industrially produced as a solid source of hydrogen peroxide for bleaching, disinfection, and oxidation reactions. As a chemical combination of fuel and oxidiser, UHP has explosive potential but it is unclear whether it could sustain a detonation at small scale. In the configuration we tested, we succeeded in recording self-sustained detonation at relatively small scale under heavy confinement, measuring a maximum experimental velocity of detonation of 3860 m/s at an optimum 1.1 g/cm³ loading density. UHP can sustain a detonation, even at the 100 g scale, but this is strongly dependant on booster size, confinement material, loading density, charge length and diameter. According to our performance assessment, pure UHP exhibits the behaviour of a non-ideal tertiary explosive. Maximum calculated detonation pressures are below 10 GPa, the order of magnitude for commercial blasting explosives. Small-scale results are consistent with literature values from large-scale experiments, although literature on the matter is quite limited. The proposed experimental method can be used to quantify the detonability and performance of other industrial materials that may have energetic properties, or small samples of homemade explosive compositions, avoiding time-consuming, expensive and potentially hazardous large-scale experiments.