Comparison of Commercially Available and Synthesized Titania Nano-Additives in Composite HTPB/AP Propellant
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AbstractThis study presents a comparison of commercially available titania nanoparticles produced using electric wire explosion with nanoparticles manufactured by the authors using a solgel synthesis process. For the present study, 20nm titania was purchased offtheshelf. It was determined to be rough spheres of 20nm forming large, micronsized agglomerates, whereas particles synthesized using the solgel process were found to be fundamentally 10nm but with submicron agglomerations thereof. The nanotitania was added to 80% AP monomodal propellants at 0.3% and 1.0% by mass. Additional, 85% bimodalAP mixtures were made, comparing commercial titania to the laboratorysynthesized particles at 1.0% by mass. Another set of samples compared a method of premixing the synthesized additives directly into the binder material at 0.3% by mass of laboratory titania; two additional premixed titania batches at 0.5% by mass were doped with either Fe or Cu into the nanocrystals. All propellants were tested up to 13.8MPa at 3.8MPa increments. Dry powder laboratory additives show a 60to100% increase in burning rate over the baseline samples with no catalyst and a 20to30% increase over the commercial nanoparticles. Premixed additives were found to produce similar burning rate increases but with lower concentrations required. This latest generation of particle synthesis techniques was further demonstrated in this study to have great potential for future propellant catalyst development.
