Keywords

Catalyst, solid propellant, ammonium perchlorate, titania, nanoparticle

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the burning behaviour of composite solid propellants (CSP) in the presence of nanoscale, heterogenous catalysts. The study targets the decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) as a key component in the burning profile of these propellants, and seeks to identify parameters of AP decomposition reaction that can be affected by catalytic additives. The decomposition behavior of AP was studied in the presence of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in varying configurations, surface conditions, dopants, morphology, and synthesis parameters with the AP crystals. The catalytic nanoparticles were found to enhance the decomposition rate of the ammonium perchlorate, and promote an accelerated burning rate of CSP propellants containing the additives. Furthermore, different configurations were shown to have varying degrees of effectiveness in promoting the decomposition behaviour. To study the effect of the catalyst’s configuration in the bulk propellant, controlled dispersion conditions of the nanoparticle catalysts were created and studied using differential scanning calorimetry, as well as model propellant strand burning. The catalysts were shown to promote the greatest enthalpy of reaction, as well as the highest burn rate, when the AP crystals were recrystalized around the nanoparticle additives. This is in contrast to the lowest enthalpy condition, which corresponded to catalysts being dispersed upon the AP crystal surface using bio-molecule templates. Additionally, a method of facile, visible light nanoparticle tracking was developed to study the effect of mixing and settling parameters on the nano-catalysts. To accomplish this, the titania nanoparticles were doped with fluorescent europium molecules to track the dispersion of the catalysts in the propellant binder. This method was shown to succesfully allow for dispersion and agglomeration monitoring without affecting the catalytic effect of the TiO2 nanoparticles.

Notes

If this is your thesis or dissertation, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu

Graduation Date

2013

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Seal, Sudipta

Degree

Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering (M.S.M.S.E.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Materials Science Engineering

Degree Program

Materials Science and Engineering

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0004991

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0004991

Language

English

Release Date

December 2013

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Engineering and Computer Science, Engineering and Computer Science -- Dissertations, Academic

Download

Share

COinS