Studies On Improving The Antistatic Ability Of Single Base Propellant

Nitrocellulose (NC) is a kind of important linear polymer energetic material, in solid propellant and propellant as energy and bonding agent, but it is a kind of insulating material and it is easily charge accumulation in friction, its high sensitivity to impact, friction, heat and static sparks. As the main component of single base propellants for NC, its mass fraction of up to 94%?96%, so the single base propellant is a poor conductor of electricity, in forming, cutting and transportation, pill with air or other insulators rub against each other, it can prone to charge accumulation and lead to burning explosion.Therefore, we put the NC as the research object to improve its antistatic properties, expected from the inside to solve the electrostatic problem of single base propellant.We have prepared antistatic NC composites by the solvent-nonsolvent method using NC and carbon nanotubes as raw materials. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), volume surface resistance tester, non-contact static voltage tester and thermal analyzer were used to characterize microstructure, antistatic properties and thermal decomposition properties of the antistatic NC composites. Results showed that when the content of carbon nanotubes in antistatic NC composites was 0.6%, the internal conductive network of the samples was uniform, integrated, and the volume resistivity and surface resistivity were1.02×109?m and 4.66×1010? respectively, which decreased by 5 orders of magnitude and 3 orders of magnitude compared with that of NC, reaching the requirements of anti-static for ammunition (GJB2527-1995). At the same time, 50% ignition voltage and 50% ignition energy increase of 0.33kV and 0.19J respectively compared with nitrocellulose materials. Further more, in the preparation process, the electrostatic potential was 0.20kV, which reduced by 77.8%, compared to NC, suggesting a good antistatic performance. Meanwhile, the apparent decomposition heat was improved by 81.4J/g than NC.We prepared single base propellant to use the content of carbon nanotubes in antistatic NC composites was 0.6% as raw material and tested the sensitivity of single base propellant. The result showed that the sensitivity of the antistatic single base propellant was higher than that of the control sample, tended to be more easy to burst.Although not to achieve the desired results, it provides a new idea for the research of anti-static of propellant and energetic materials.