New Energetic Solid Propellant Ingredients

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI), and its team members, propose to advance the understanding and use of a new energetic furoxan oxidizer with high-energy and low-sensitivity and to investigate related derivatives of this structure. PSI¡¦s team, which consists of Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Energetic Materials Center and Aerojet Corp., Energetic Materials Group, has actively investigated this new energetic oxidizer under a Phase I effort, and has successfully demonstrated synthetic pathways to the precursor and final target material. The targeted furoxan properties, standard enthalpy of formation (657 kJ/mol), density (1.937 g/cc), detonation velocity (9250 m/s), and decomposition point (292„a C) show it to have high potential for improved propellant and explosive performance. PSI¡¦s team will continue to improve the synthetic scheme to produce the molecule, will evaluate related structures based on this and related chemistry, and will demonstrate use in propellant formulations. PSI proposes to produce up to 100 gm of a target oxidizer for small-scale evaluation in propellants. LLNL will optimize the synthetic steps to produce the furoxan and related structures. Aerojet will provide characterization of these structures and will demonstrate its use in propellant. This effort will advance the understanding and use of this promising class of compounds.