2. Current Technology
• Industry currently uses hypergolic solutions
for propellant or fuel in rocket propulsion
systems.
• Hypergolic solutions do not need an
ignition source
– Hydrazine, MMH, UDMH, RP-1
• Hydrazine and other hypergolic solutions
are extremely toxic and/or difficult to store
in liquid form.
• RP-1 uses liquid oxygen which is inefficient
to pressurize and store.
• Growing demand for greener, safer and
more cost effective propulsion systems.
3. • Hypergolic propellants components
spontaneously ignite when they come into
contact with each other.
• Hypergolic propellants eliminate the need for
an ignition source and rely only on a
fuel/oxidizer mix to combust.
Hypergolicity
Only the fuel and the oxidizer are
needed to create combustion.
4. • Decaboronate salt has a hypergolic
relationship with nitric acid.
• Salts can be dissolved into other ionic
fuel solutions and cause them to
become hypergolic.
• Any solution that can dissolve the
salts can become hypergolic and thus
used as a fuel source.
• Less toxic than hydrazine and more
efficient than liquid oxygen methods.
Decaboronate Salt Technology
Ionic liquid containing dissolved
decaboronate salts interacting with nitric
acid
5. • Salts can be used as primary, solid bipropellants
• Can be used to induce hypergolicity when dissolved in other solutions
• Can be used as an additive to reduce ignition delay times in known propellants
– Decaboronate ignition delay: < 3 ms
– Hydrazine: ~15 ms
• Salts can be suspended in ionic liquids
– Not sensitive to water
• Will ignite on contact with safer and benign oxidizers such as 99% or 70% nitric
acid which can replace liquid oxygen in RP-1 bipropellant.
– Reduces inefficiencies of storing liquid oxygen
– Lowers toxicity and hazardousness of propellant storage.
Advantages
6. Dr. Robin Rogers
• Ph.D. Chemistry
• Adjunct Professor at The University of
Alabama
• Canada Excellence Research Chair at McGill
University
• Over 100 patents filed
Inventor
7. Office for Technology Transfer
720 2nd Ct E
Tuscaloosa, AL 35401
OTT@UA.edu
www.OTT.UA.edu
Editor's Notes
Make sure to list references for all numbers, trends, etc. on each slide. Many inventors like to see exactly where the data comes from.
Should read like Wikipedia entry. Try to focus on the high points.
Make sure to list references for all numbers, trends, etc. on each slide. Many inventors like to see exactly where the data comes from.
