Ionic liquid-H₂O₂ propellants and their ignition behavior

Abstract

As the primary power source, propellants enable faster and more distant space exploration. While the traditional hydrazine-based bipropellants are gradually replaced due to their extreme volatility and carcinogenicity, ionic liquid-H₂O₂ has become an important research direction for green propellants because of the environmental friendliness. This review mainly focuses on two aspects of ionic liquid-H₂O₂ bipropellants: (1) the structures and properties of ionic liquids that spontaneously ignite with H₂O₂. These ionic liquids include the BH₃CN⁻, BH₄⁻, and SCN⁻-based compounds, which possess strong reduction ability, enabling hypergolicity with high-concentration H₂O₂; (2) the structures and properties of catalysts that enhance the ignition of ionic liquids with H₂O₂. These catalysts include pure iodine-based, CuI-based, and metal (Cu, Ni, Mn) complex-based catalysts, which boost N(CN)₂⁻-based ionic liquids from non-ignition to ignition, and BH-based ionic liquids from long to short ignition delay times with high-concentration H₂O₂. The properties of the mentioned ionic liquids and catalysts, such as decomposition temperature, density, viscosity, enthalpy of formation, and specific impulse, are analyzed. Ignition delay times are measured using drop tests, and imidazolium thiocyanate (IL 8) exhibits the shortest ignition delay time of 7.3 ms with 97% H₂O₂. Based on the calculations, N-methyl-N-ethylpyrrolidinium thiocyanate (IL 16) has the highest propulsion performance with a specific impulse of 320 s. Here, the detailed research of the ionic liquid-H₂O₂ system is summarized, which is valuable to get the overall understanding and the new development of green propellants for rocket applications.

Keywords

Ionic liquid / H₂O₂ / Propellant / Ignition behavior / Specific impulse

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Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China(U21A20307)

CAS Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research(YSBR-052)

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