I worked with an ex-employee of Pioneer Astronautics (Zubrin's
company) and he said they had a reliable nitrous catalyst. They are in
Colorado, perhaps it was them.
It'd be interesting to compare them with the BASF catalysts that
Anthony mentioned up there.
Being able to use nitrous catalytically makes it possibly interesting
for a few tiny edge cases.
On Tue, Aug 30, 2016 at 8:52 PM, Edward Wranosky <edwardcw@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I was contacted by a Colorado company once because they said they had found
a compound that would decompose N2O on contact. I was working with HPR
sized N2O hybrids at the time. From discussions they said that It would be
something that would be able to be included below the injectors in a
rubberized grain to start decomposition.
We corresponded but I never got samples to test.
Edward
On Tue, Aug 30, 2016 at 12:48 PM, William Claybaugh <wclaybaugh2@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Paul:
It was Anthony who remarked on the N2O catalysts and I'll let him comment
further if he chooses to do.
When I looked at N2O catalysts I could not find any that did not require
preheating: they drop the decomposition temperature a hundred or so degrees
(Celsius) but do not bring it down to "room" temperature.
If anything existed that did not require heating I expect Surrey and
others would have been all over it by now.
Bill
On Tuesday, August 30, 2016, Paul Mueller <paul.mueller.iii@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Bill,
There seems to be a lot of work trying to find a "good" (durable,
low-temp, etc.) catalyst for N2O to use it as a nontoxic monoprop for
satellites as a replacement for hydrazine. Do you know if BASF has any
patents and/or other info available on their catalysts?
On Mon, Aug 29, 2016 at 6:44 PM, <qbert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks Bill, but for me it's like one of those bucket list things for
me. I have been stuck on peroxide ever since I saw it go fizz on a cut
finger some 55 years ago.
The stuff Aerojet tried selling me were roughly 1/4" round pellets and
they want me to buy a 5lb box at a 6 figure price. and we would have had to
change the whole cat pack configuration to accommodate enough pellets to
get
good decomp.
I'm going to try some Mn2O3 and see where that leads.
Robert
At 04:49 PM 8/29/2016, you wrote:
Robert:
With deep respect, "affordable" might be differently understood after a
long and ultimately apparently failed effort to use silver screens.
There are other companies that use 405 and finding one to sell (or
donate) enough for your purposes might--in retrospect--have been far lower
cost.
Given that you have found that it works, if I were to ever use peroxide
again I think I would be inclined to baseline 405.
Of course, if I'm going to do *that*, I might as well use
hydrazine...recognizing that there is a reason that professionals switched
half a century ago....
Bill
On Monday, August 29, 2016, <qbert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
We actually used some and yes it was very good however all we had was a
sample and an offer to be able to purchase at a quantity that we could
never
have used or afforded.
Robert
At 04:17 PM 8/29/2016, you wrote:
I have been told Shell 405 works fine on peroxide but have never heard
of anyone using it; the statement came from one of the most experienced
liquid rocket engineers in the US, FWIW.
But not perhaps "monolithic" as you mean it.
Bill
On Monday, August 29, 2016, <qbert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: I was not
aware and don't think that processing screens the way we did it was covered
under ITAR since we got it straight from a public book on peroxide rockets
and Erik Bengtsson from Peroxide Propulsion
We plated our 20 mesh nickel screens by first cleaning the screens in an
acid bath and then thru a wash cycle. They then go into an electro-cleaning
solution, through some more washes, then dipped in a pre-activation
solution, and we do a copper strike. Back into the acid to etch the copper,
back thru the cleaning baths and then a silver strike at low amperage
followed by the silver plate at high amperage. We then oxidize the silver
with liver of sulphur and then heat it in an oven to just below the melting
point, (see the following for the reasons,
http://www.peroxidepropulsion.com/article/18 ;). When the silver is cooled
we
then do another quick acid bath and wash and then proceed with doing the
standard addition of samarium which further enhances the catalization.
Although we have varied on timing and temperatures the stripping problem
has stayed with us. In the end we have a relatively stable high performing
catalyst with two defects. It can be poisoned and it tends to strip silver
on long runs.
Presently I use plated screens processed similar to above and runs less
then 10 seconds in the schools 1.5" motor. 1 quick pulse to heat the pack
will then give me a 10 second clean run.
BTW the school gets 23 liter containers of a rather pure 90% peroxide
which we dilute down to 85% for school demonstrations and after hour tests.
While we are on the Subject, does anyone have a more detailed
description of a monolith cat pack like or similar to Aerojets cat packs?
Robert
At 05:38 AM 8/29/2016,
I want to respect proprietary processes--as well as ITAR--so I'm going
to be a little vague:
It is my understanding that the silver is electroplated using a very
different process than that conventially used for fine silveer plating.
The Samarian Oxide process involves--as I have seen it--dipping of the
screens for a specific period of time in a Samarian Nitrrate solution
that is kept at a specific temperature; that is followed by warm air
drying--again, at a specific air temperature--followed by oven cooking at a
specific temperature and for a specific period.šÂ This is repeated a
number of times. Test samples are inspected via electron microscope to
verify that the coating is the correct overall thickness and has the
correct
porosity.
Bill
On Monday, August 29, 2016, Uwe Klein <uwe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > wrote:
Am 29.08.2016 um 03:30 schrieb Anthony Cesaroni: If the silver plating
process
How is the plating actually done here? galvanic? that will come off
easily. High current galvanics could improve onn that.
what about molten powder application  Â Ãâ Ã‚ÂÂ
https://www.castolin.com/ or sputtering? uwe
