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- Title
Nitrocellulose‐Based Green‐Light Illuminants: A Study of Barium Nitrate Particle Size on Spectral Performance.
- Authors
Kotter, Lance N.; Groven, Lori J.
- Abstract
While a typical military flare includes a metal fuel (aluminum, magnesium, boron, etc.) to increase combustion temperature and therefore spectral performance, the replacement of these fuels to reduce smoke (non‐light emitting species) is still desired. Nitrocellulose (NC) is known to be a "smokeless" propellant and, in this work, used solely as the fuel component in the pyrotechnic flare composition. Two levels of nitration, 12.2% N and 13.4% N content, are studied and while the influence of nitration content is shown, this work focuses on the role of barium nitrate (Ba(NO3)2) particle size. For formulations with 13.4% N content, reducing the Ba(NO3)2 particle size fraction from 250–300 μm to ≤25 μm results in the dominant wavelength being reduced from 569 nm to 558 nm. Combustion products collected from formulations using the 250–300 μm Ba(NO3)2, were characterized and indicated barium carbonate (BaCO3) as the major condensed phase product. This indicates that the formation of barium oxide (BaO) from the slow decomposition of Ba(NO3)2, coupled with the release of CO2 from NC, likely results in the following reaction: BaO+CO2→BaCO3. While unexpected, this implies that controlling early chemistry during combustion may allow significant improvements in spectral performance by inhibiting non‐light emitting specie formation.
- Subjects
PARTICULATE nitrate; BARIUM; BARIUM oxide; COMBUSTION products; METAL-base fuel; NITRATION
- Publication
Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics, 2022, Vol 47, Issue 12, p1
- ISSN
0721-3115
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/prep.202200214