Development of Novel Fluoro/Fluoro-Nitro Energetic Binders for High Energy Applications

EasyChair Preprint 1998

Abstract

A high energy material is a substance or mixture containing combustible elements and oxidizing elements in a metastable system, capable of reacting under relatively minor provocation from a variety of stimuli, producing heat and gaseous products. In an effort to comply with IM criteria, energetic polymeric binders are finding use in cast cured polymer bonded explosives and cast composite rocket propellants. Energetic binders provide a matrix to bind explosive ingredients together with a plasticizer. Fluorinated polymers offer intrinsic advantages over inert hydrocarbons such as hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) for their long term chemical stability, low coefficients of friction, high densities, compatibilities with the energetic materials and broad operating temperature ranges. Moreover, fluoropolymer-metal compositions can also give specific high reaction energy. Nitro groups increases the overall oxygen balance of propellant formulation when functionalized onto the polymeric backbone of the binder. Poly-glycidyl nitrate (poly-GLYN) is one of the most promising energetic polymers known to-date and demonstrates attractive properties such as high-density impulse, oxygen balance and burn-rate. However, poly-GLYN forms unstable urethane bonds when cured with isocyanates causing rapid degradation and gassing. However, the stability issue with Poly-GLN can be solved by forming diol-terminated or epoxy-terminated poly-GLN. In this work, we report the development of novel fluoro and fluoro-nitro energetic binders for propellant applications. The new polymers developed in this work demonstrate superior thermal stabilities and friction sensitivities than Poly-GLN and Poly-NIMMO. In the presentation, we will discuss in details about the synthesis and various characterization methods for optimizing the polymer properties suitable for propellant applications.

Keyphrases: Binder, Energetic, Fluoro, Fluoro-Nitro, Low-Tg, thermal stability

@booklet{EasyChair:1998,
  author    = {Saheli Dey and Keerthi Harish Kumar and Balaka Barkakaty},
  title     = {Development of Novel Fluoro/Fluoro-Nitro Energetic Binders for High Energy Applications},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 1998},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2019}}