US EPA

8166852 

Journal Article 

Effects of addition of surfactants on viscosity of uncured ammonium perchlorate/hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene propellant 

Kohga, M; Hagihara, Y 

1998 

59 

4 

167-173 

English 

For the preparation of ammonium perchlorate (AP)/hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) composite propellant, the lower viscosity of uncured propellant during mixing and casting is desirable. In this study, the effects of the addition of 11 kinds of surfactants on the viscosity of an uncured propellant are investigated. The results are as follows; 1) Sodium lauryl sulfate is the most effective to decrease the viscosity of the AP/HTPB mixture. The apparent viscosity of the AP/HTPB mixture with sodium lauryl sulfate can be made 30% lower than that of the AP/HTPB mixture alone. 2) The optimum added amount of sodium lauryl sulfate is 0.005 wt% to HTPB, in order to obtain the sufficient effect of decreasing the viscosity of AP/HTPB mixture. 3) The apparent viscosity of AP/HTPB mixture can be decreased by the improvement of the wettability between AP and HTPB prepolymer. 4) The addition of sodium lauryl sulfate is effective to decrease the apparent viscosity of uncured propellant and to delay the potlife.