A promising azido nitrate ester plasticizer for propellant

Abstract

Plasticizers are a class of materials which are added to increase not only the plasticity but also the process-ability, flexibility and durability of the propellants. Azido nitrate ester plasticizers with both –N3 and –ONO2 groups in the molecule have attracted great attentions. In this work, an azido nitrate ester compound (2-azidoethyl nitrate ester, AENE) was designed with the aid of computer. To explore whether AENE is a good plasticizer for NC (nitrocellulose) and GAP (glycidyl azido polymer), its crystal structure, stability, and energetic properties as well as the compatibility and mechanical properties of the constructed AENE/NC and AENE/GAP composites were investigated using the density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) methods. Results show that compared with the traditional plasticizer NG (nitroglycerin), AENE not only has comparable stability and energetic properties, but also possesses a better ability to improve the mechanical properties of NC and GAP. The larger contents of AENE are, the better mechanical properties of AENE/NC and AENE/GAP composites have. These suggest AENE is a promising azido nitrate ester plasticizer for NC and GAP and worth the further experimental researches.