LYNNTECH INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: MDA22-004

Description

The widespread use of high energy components, like boron, in solid composite fuels and propellants promises to provide needed increases in performance required by next generation missiles, rocket motors, or ramjet engines. As such these materials, particularly boron powder, have received significant attention as a combustible fuel for powering rockets and ramjets. To achieve the full benefit of high energy-based fuels and propellants within these next generation engines, the concentration of energetic materials within these formulations will need to be increased. It has been seen that impurities on the surface of these energetic particles have the potential to disrupt their combustion reactions as well as inhibit or catalyze their mixing and curing in polymer binders. These issues greatly limit the amount of energetic particles that can be added to propellant formulations. To solve these issues, Lynntech plans to identify methods and materials capable of chemically modifying the surface of energetic particles with organic ligands. These surface ligands will help to stabilize the surface of the particles, reducing and preventing further surface oxidation, reduce/eliminate strong agglomeration of the particles, as well as enable the particles to disperse effectively in polymer binder mixtures. This will enable the fully passivated particles to uniformly disperse in the polymer binder formulations at high concentrations, allowing the particles to interact with the polymer backbone and eliminating any negative interactions. Approved for Public Release | 22-MDA-11215 (27 Jul 22)