Technical Development in Ionic Liquid Monopropellant Ignition Using Plasma

Research on high-performance ionic monopropellants is being actively conducted to replace toxic and carcinogenic hydrazine monopropellants. High-performance ionic monopropellants have higher specific impulse and lower toxicity than hydrazine, however have the disadvantage that the catalyst must be preheated to 623 K or higher to use the propellant. Additionally, a high heat-resistant catalyst must be manufactured to withstand the high adiabatic decomposition temperature of the propellant. To overcome this disadvantage, studies have been conducted to ignite the ionic monopropellant in various ways. Among these, propellant ignition using plasma has the advantage of being able to ignite within a short period of time. In this paper, we introduce studies of propellant ignition using plasma in domestic and overseas, and discuss design points when manufacturing an ionic monopropellant thruster using plasma.