Hypergolic ionic liquids: to be or not to be?

ABSTRACT: Hypergolic ionic liquids (HIL) - ionic liquids which ignite spontaneously upon contact with an oxidizer - emerged as green space propellants. Exploiting the previously marked hypergolic [EMIM][CBH] - WFNA (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium cyanoborohydride - white fuming nitric acid) system as a benchmark, through the utilization of a novel chirped-pulse droplet-merging technique in an ultrasonic levitation environment and electronic structure calculations, this work deeply questions the hypergolicity of the [EMIM][CBH]-WFNA system. Molecular oxygen is critically required for the [EMIM][CBH]-WFNA system to ignite spontaneously. State-of-the-art electronic structure calculations identified the resonantly stabilized N-boryl-N-oxo-formamide [(H₃B-N(O)-CHO)^-; BOFA

SUBMITTER: Biswas S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10806841 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature