Nano-Catalytic Particle Synthesis for Heterogeneous Combustion in Compact High-Thrust to Weight Ratio Propulsion Systems

This Phase I SBIR project is aimed toward the synthesis of nanoscale hybrid metallic fuel/catalyst particles and demonstration of the feasibility of catalytic combustion of conventional fuels using the synthesized nanocatalyst particles. In Phase I, nanoparticles of Al/Al2O3 and Al/Al2O3/Cu-CuO with controlled size and composition will be synthesized using a novel technique that employs expansion of a reactive thermal plasma. These nanoparticles will be injected along with the conventional fuel stream to enable catalysis without the use of a static porous support bed. The catalytic reactions will ultimately produce enough heat to disintegrate the outer coating of the nanoparticle to release an energetic nanometallic core, whose combustion will release high energy, making the technology suitable for high-thrust applications. Due to limited resources in Phase I, the feasibility of the combustion processes will be explored only through modeling and simulations. The commercial multiphysics computational fluid dynamic (CFD) software CFD-ACE+, after necessary modifications to account for nanoscale effects, will be used to perform the simulations. The Phase II study will involve design and construction of a prototype engine. Study of the characteristic properties of the synthesized nanocatalyst particles namely, oxidation chemistry, energy release rates, etc. will be undertaken to achieve this goal.