Burn rate sensitization of solid propellants using a nano-titania additive
AssigneeUniversity of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc.
InventorsEric Petersen, Jennifer Small, Metthew Stephens, Jason Arvanetes, Sudipta Seal, Sameer Deshpande
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Abstract
Adding nanoparticles as a catalyst to solid propellant fuel to increase and enhance burn rates of the fuel by up to 10 times or more and/or modifying the pressure index. A preferred embodiment uses TiO2 nanoparticles mixed with a solid propellant fuel, where the nanoparticles are approximately 2% or less of total propellant mixture. The high surface to volume ratio of the nanoparticles improve the performance of the solid propellant fuel.
Claims7
A composite solid propellant having a catalyst, consisting essentially of:
- a composite solid propellant fuel;
- and
- uncoated nanoparticles of TiO2 additive consisting of nano-sized arrays of particles are mixed with the solid propellant fuel to produce a final propellant mixture having 0.4% of nanoparticles of TiO2 consisting of nano-sized arrays of particles with a diameter of 10 nanometers or less, wherein the uncoated nanoparticles of TiO2 act as the catalyst to increase the burn rate of the composite solid propellant for enhancing solid propellant burn rates that do not exhibit bi-plateau burning behaviors.
A composite solid propellant having a catalyst consisting essentially of
- a composite solid propellant fuel;
- and
- uncoated nanoparticles of TiO2 additive consisting of nano-sized arrays of particles with a diameter of 10 nanometers or less mixed with the solid propellant fuel wherein the TiO2 nanoparticles comprise:
- Isopropanol anhydrous mixed with 2,4-Pentanedione to produce a first mixed solution;
- a titanium Isoproproxide mixed with the first mixed solution to produce a second mixed solution;
- and
- a deionized water mixed with the second mixed solution for hydrolysis to produce a final mixture, wherein the final mixture is aged to produce approximately 1.6 gram of nanoparticles of TiO2 additive for enhancing solid propellant burn rates that are not bi-plateau burning behaviors.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.