Research and development of energetic ionic liquids

I&EC 263

Tommy W. Hawkins, tommy.hawkins@edwards.af.mil, Air Force Research Laboratory, US Air Force, 10 Saturn Blvd, Edwards AFB, CA 93524-7680 and Gregory W. Drake, gregory.w.drake@nasa.gov, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812.
Current research programs are aiming to develop ionic liquids (ILs) as energetic materials for various applications including both propulsion and explosives. Within the propulsion arena a focus is to replace hydrazine (a highly toxic compound) as a bipropellant fuel. One approach to replacing hydrazine is the synthesis and development of ILs with substantially less vapor toxicity and superior energy density. Synthesis, characterization and testing of these high energy density materials (HEDM) is an essential part of the process for identifying ILs that are useful bipropellant fuels. Hazardous characteristics, undesirable physical and chemical properties of such ILs must be identified before further development by a potential user. Recently synthesized IL molecules and their properties will be discussed (including limited safety and sensitivity, and thermophysical properties). Energetic ILs have also recently been synthesized and characterized as explosive ingredients and are a promising material approach to explosives.