Shockwave compression and dissociation of ammonia gas.

We performed a series of plate impact experiments on NH gas initially at room temperature and at a pressure of ∼100 psi. Shocked states were determined by optical velocimetry and the temperatures by optical pyrometry, yielding compression ratios of ∼5-10 and second shock temperatures in excess of 7500 K. A first-principles statistical mechanical (thermochemical) approach that included chemical dissociation yielded reasonable agreement with experimental results on the principal Hugoniot, even with interparticle interactions neglected.