Synergistic hypergolic ignition of blends of dienes and dienophiles with red fuming nitric acid as oxidizer

Abstract

Synergistic hypergolic ignition of several fuel blends and mixtures with red fuming nitric acid (RFNA) as oxidizer has been reported previously. The liquid fuels consisted of blends of 3-carene, cyclopentadiene, or norbornadiene with cardanol in the weight ratio 70:30 for the first two and 85:15 for norbornadiene. In all these cases, synergism in ignition was believed to be due to the fast and exothermic oligomerization of 3-carene, cyclopentadiene, and norbornadiene in the presence of acid. The exothermicity of the systems was enhanced by the addition of cardanol to the unsaturation of oligomers, leading to the formation of highly oxidizable phenolic ethers. Two more important reactions at the preignition stage were nitration and oxidation of the ethers leading to the production of gaseous combustibles and heat. In this case, an attempt has been made to extend the range of possible preignition reactions by introducing diene-dienophile Diels-Alder cycloaddition with low activation energy by replacing cardanol with furfuryl alcohol or furfurylideneacetone having a furan ring to behave as acid polymerizable dienes in the above systems.