Green in-space propellants : ignition chemistry of hypergolic ionic liquids
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This thesis focuses on a class of promising green propellants alternatives for bipropellant applications: ionic liquids. Ionic liquids have extremely low vapor pressures and other beneficial properties while reacting hypergolically (spontaneously igniting upon mixing) with select oxidizers. Although ionic liquids show a great amount of promise as future green propellant alternatives, there is still little understood about the chemistry occurring during hypergolic ignition with oxidizers and how ignition properties relate to the chemical structure of the fuel. The work presented here contributes to the understanding of hypergolic ionic liquids by (1) expanding the understanding of the ignition process through various droplet ignition testing, (2) providing valuable data on key thermal decomposition and hypergolic ignition chemical pathways by using in situ infrared spectroscopy coupled with computational quantum chemistry techniques, (3) exploring a novel hypergolic ionic liquid using spectroscopy and computational methods to highlight effects of fuel design and chemical structure on hypergolic reactivity, (4) examining the value of propellant additives through use of one fuel and one oxidizer additive, and (5) contributing high quality data to expand the capabilities of predictive algorithms to include hypergolic molecular liquids, providing ways to predict chemical and performance properties from chemical and electronic structure alone. All together, the contributions of this thesis provide a stronger basis upon which future green propellant development may occur. The experimental portion provides intuition for designing future fuels, using spectroscopy and computational quantum chemistry techniques to help relate fuel structure and composition to reactivity. Once there is an idea for a future fuel, the predictive methods expanded in this thesis may then provide preliminary performance metrics for potential fuel designs prior to synthesis and experimentation, saving time and money associated with trial-and-error experimentation. Utilizing predictive methods for propellant design will help expedite and streamline the implementation of safer, more cost-effective green propellant alternatives and ultimately provide a more accessible future for space exploration.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2019; ©2019 |
| Publication date | 2019; 2019 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Thomas, Anna E |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Cantwell, Brian |
| Thesis advisor | Cantwell, Brian |
| Thesis advisor | Chambreau, Steven |
| Thesis advisor | Close, Sigrid, 1971- |
| Thesis advisor | Kochenderfer, Mykel J, 1980- |
| Degree committee member | Chambreau, Steven |
| Degree committee member | Close, Sigrid, 1971- |
| Degree committee member | Kochenderfer, Mykel J, 1980- |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Anna E. Thomas. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2019. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2019 by Anna Elizabeth Thomas
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...