Abstract
Following previous studies of electrical ignition of liquid propellants in plasma jets, initiation by focused laser beams is studied both by fast cine shadowgraphy and by recording permanent gas release as a measure of decomposition. Unlike military propellants, droplets of aqueous mixtures of nitrate salts of hydroxylamine with a 4-carbon aliphatic amine do not ignite when an approx 10 J laser pulse is focused within the liquid. Ignition is achieved by producing breakdown in air in the vicinity of propellant droplets, though little decomposition results, at atmospheric pressure. Precursory electrolysis of varying duration is attempted, in view of postulated chemical mechanisms which suggest that solution of NO in the propellant should enhance ignition. This indeed greatly promotes the vigour of the reaction and leads to an amount of decomposition which increases with increasing time of electrolysis. It appears that the propellant is permanently modified by this simple procedure, leading to obvious practical as well as fundamental conclusions.
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