Ionic Liquids as Hypergolic Fuels

摘要

After seminal work presented a decade ago, ionic liquids (IL) have now received a lot of attention as energetic materials for propellant applications. In bipropellant rocket engines, it is desirable to achieve ignition by means of a hypergolic reaction and therefore to minimize system complexity. Hypergolic bipropellants are defined as fuel and oxidizer combinations that, upon contact, chemically react and release enough heat to spontaneously ignite, eliminating the need for an additional ignition source. This also makes them highly reliable for spacecraft and satellites, which need to fire their rocket engines hundreds or even thousands of times during their lifetime.