Theoretical study of the 5-aminotetrazole thermal decomposition

The thermal decomposition of 5-aminotetrazole was studied theoretically using the G3 multilevel procedure and DFT B3LYP technique. The unimolecular primary decomposition reactions of the three most stable isomers of 5-ATZ were studied in the gas phase and in the melt using a simplified model of the latter. The influence of the melt on the elementary reaction barrier was taken into account by the calculation of the solvation free energies using the PCM model. In contrast to all previous publications, we considered the bimolecular reactions of 5-ATZ and demonstrated that they are very important especially in the condensed phase. It was found that the imino form undergoes fast isomerization to the amino form in the H-bonded dimers and does not participate in the 5-ATZ thermolysis. On the contrary, amino and, probably, the 2H isomer are the main isomers of 5-ATZ in the melt and gas phase. The N(2) elimination reaction was found to be the dominant unimolecular channel of the amino and 2H isomer decomposition in both the gas phase and melt. The significant lowering of the activation barriers of decomposition reactions in H-bonded dimers was found. In agreement with the existing experimental data, HN(3) elimination dominates for some of the considered complexes. It was concluded that the initial stages of thermolysis of 5-ATZ cannot be satisfactory described by the simple unimolecular reactions proposed in the literature.