Low-Toxicity Reactive Hypergolic Fuels for Use with Hydrogen Peroxide
Abstract
The need for low toxicity hypergolic fuels has brought rocket grade hydrogen peroxide (RGHP) to the forefront as the oxidizer of choice for future hypergolic systems. The search for a hypergolic mate for RGHP has been primarily focused on using transition metal salts dissolved in energetic liquids to create hypergolic fuels. These dissolved salts catalytically decompose RGHP on contact, producing heated oxygen and steam which ignite the remainder of the fuel. The use of transition metal salts in these fuels is therefore necessary to induce hypergolicity, but these compounds reduce the specific impulse of these fuels due to the presence of high molecular weight transition metal oxides in the exhaust. Reactive hypergolic fuels can eliminate this problem by using light metal hydrides dissolved in energetic liquids for fuels. These metal hydrides combust directly with RGHP upon contact and ignite the remainder of the fuel. Due to the low atomic weights of the metals used, these metal hydrides can enhance the specific impulse of such fuels instead of degrading the performance as transitional metal salts do. Tests of such reactive fuels are promising and indicate that fuels of this type can be successful hypergolic fuels for use with hydrogen peroxide.
- Publication:
-
ESA Special Publication
- Pub Date:
- October 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004ESASP.557E..32P