Initial Studies on Development of High-Performance Nano-structured Fe 2 O 3 Catalysts for Solid Rocket Propellants

Arun Chandru, R and Patel, RP and Oommen, C and Raghunandan, BN (2019) Initial Studies on Development of High-Performance Nano-structured Fe 2 O 3 Catalysts for Solid Rocket Propellants. In: Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, 28 (2). pp. 810-816.

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Abstract

Space launch vehicles and strategic military vehicles commonly employ composite solid rocket propellants containing Fe 2 O 3 as ballistic modifier. Nanoscale catalysts, including nanoscale Fe 2 O 3 , have been reported to exhibit superior activity in the thermal decomposition and combustion of composite rocket propellants. However, scalable methods to prepare such nano-structured catalysts with high performance as ballistic modifiers and systematic studies relating the synthesis parameters to the catalyst characteristics and consequently to the thermal and combustion properties of the composite propellant are scarce. In this paper, we report a novel and facile route to prepare nano-structured Fe 2 O 3 with enhanced catalytic activity in the ballistic modification of ammonium perchlorate (AP)-based composite solid rocket propellant. A submerged spray precipitation method using air-assisted liquid-centered coaxial atomization has been developed to prepare these nano-structured Fe 2 O 3 catalysts. The prepared Fe 2 O 3 catalysts possess higher surface area and exhibit superior activity in the thermal sensitization of AP, leading to an 88 increase in the burning rate of AP-based composite solid rocket propellants, than the Fe 2 O 3 catalyst prepared via traditional precipitation method. Merits of the developed preparatory route, influence of the atomization process on the nano-structure morphology and subsequent benefits of these nano-structured catalysts on the ballistic properties of AP-based propellants are demonstrated and discussed in this paper.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance
Publisher:	Springer New York LLC
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to Springer New York LLC.
Keywords:	Atomization; Ballistics; Catalyst activity; Catalysts; Combustion; Composite propellants; Decomposition; Explosives; Hematite; Inorganic compounds; Military vehicles; Nanostructures; Precipitation (chemical); Propulsion; Rockets; Scalability; Solid propellants, aerospace; Ammonium perchlorates; Enhanced catalytic activity; Nano-structured catalyst; Nanoprocessing; Precipitation methods; Solid rocket propellant; Space launch vehicles, Nanocatalysts
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Aerospace Engineering(Formerly Aeronautical Engineering)
Date Deposited:	29 Nov 2022 06:53
Last Modified:	29 Nov 2022 06:53
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/78049

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