Conventional ferrocene derivatives exhibit limited efficacy in regulating the combustion of composite propellants, and the underlying combustion mechanism remains unclear. It becomes imperative to explore the modification of conventional ferrocene derivatives and their application in composite propellants, with the aim of unraveling the intricate combustion mechanism involved. In this study, we synthesized three novel high-nitrogen energetic ferrocene derivatives, namely MAFcNO 3 , MAFcPA, and MAFcNTO, and investigated their potential as catalysts for hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene solid propellants, and subjected to explore their thermal decomposition and combustion characteristics. The burning rates of the propellants showed significant improvements. Notably, the propellants containing MAFcPA exhibited the lowest pressure exponent of 0.396 within the pressure range of 1-10 MPa. The addition of MAFcPA to the HTPB propellant led to an increase in the combustion flame temperature from 2229.41°C to 2349.91°C. Auto-ignition experiments conducted using a rapid compression machine, the results demonstrated a significant enhancement in the combustion energy release rate of the propellant. Thermal decomposition experiments revealed that MAFcPA facilitated the decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) and hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), as well as the melting of aluminum (Al). Combustion experiments further elucidated that the decomposition of MAFcPA yielded ferric oxide. The gaseous products of the propellant combustion included CH 4 , H 2 O, CO, CO 2 , H 2 C=CH 2 , CH CH, HCN and O 2 , while the combustion residues consisted of Al, Al 2 O 3 , Al 4 C 3 , Al 2 OC and Fe 2 O 3 . This work demonstrates the efficient combustion catalytic effect of three high-nitrogen energetic ferrocene derivatives for solid propellants binded with hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene.
Jiang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.