New solid propellants based on energetic binders and HNF

Abstract In view of Europe's need for more energetic as well as clean storable solid rocket propellants, formulations based on ammonium nitrate (AN), ammonium dinitramine (ADN) and hydrazinium nitroformate (HNF) as clean oxidizers, glycidyl azide polymer (GAP), polyglycidyl nitrate (PGN), polynitromethyloxetane (PLN) and 3,3-bis(azydomethyl)oxetane (BAMO) as energetic binders and aluminum (A1) as an additional fuel are looking promising in terms of theoretical performance. These propellant formulations do not contain chlorine or chlorine compounds and are, as compared to conventional ammonium perchlorate (AP) based propellants, with respect to environmental aspects virtually non-polluting. For a number of oxidizer fuel combinations theoretical performance figures are given for various oxidizer-to-fuel (O/F) ratios using the aluminum content as a parameter. Performance figures show that the combination HNF/A1/GAP, in particular, is a very promising one. The ingredients HNF and GAP were synthesized in small quantities and their relevant properties were determined. A high performance HNF/A1/GAP formulation was characterized and tested in a laboratorium scale burner yielding pressure vs burning rate data.