Projects per year
Abstract
A number of polymers have been proposed for use as propellants in space launch and thruster applications based on laser ablation, although few prior studies have either evaluated their performance at background pressures representative of the upper atmosphere or investigated interactions with ambient gases other than air. Here, we use spatially and temporally resolved optical emission spectroscopy to compare three polymers, poly(ethylene), poly(oxymethylene), and glycidyl azide polymer, ablated using a 532 nm, nanosecond pulsed laser under Ar and O2 at pressures below 1 Torr. Emission lines from neutrally and positively charged atoms are observed in each case, along with the recombination radiation at the interaction front between the plasma plume and the background gas. C2 radicals arise either as a direct fragmentation product or by a three-body recombination of C atoms, depending on the structure of the polymer backbone, and exhibit a rotational temperature of ≈5000 K. The Sedov-Taylor point blast model is used to infer the energy release relative to the incident laser energy, which for all polymers is greater in the presence of O2, as to be expected based on their negative oxygen balance. Under Ar, plume confinement is seen to enhance the self-reactivity of the ejecta from poly(oxymethylene) and glycidyl azide polymer, with maximum exothermicity close to 0.5 Torr. However, little advantage of the latter, widely considered one of the most promising energetic polymers, is apparent under the present conditions over the former, a common engineering plastic.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 013303 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Applied Physics |
Volume | 121 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 6 Jan 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 7 Jan 2017 |
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Dive into the research topics of 'Imaging spectroscopy of polymer ablation plasmas for laser propulsion applications'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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Metrology concepts for a new generation of plasma manufacturing with atom-scale precision
Ashfold, M. N. R. (Principal Investigator)
1/07/13 → 21/12/18
Project: Research
Datasets
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Long Jiao et al. (2016) - Imaging spectroscopy of polymer ablation plasmas for laser propulsion applications
Jiao, L. (Creator), Truscott, B. (Creator), Ashfold, M. (Creator) & Liu, H. (Creator), University of Bristol, 28 Sept 2016
DOI: 10.5523/bris.1dxobtq9nyk1d1jv72ipiy7btl, http://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/1dxobtq9nyk1d1jv72ipiy7btl
Dataset