(1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China) (2. Key Laboratory of Special Energy Materials of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China)
In view of the inherent limitations of traditional gun propellant with deterring and coating method, based on the molecular characteristics of nitrocellulose and the basic principle of energy release process control method, the concept and method of surface molecule (functional group) tailoring of propellant were proposed in this paper. The propellant prepared by this method is called nitro gradiently distributed propellant (NGDP). The forming process of the propellants is that, the nitrate esters in the surface layer are hydrolyzed and removed by certain ways, the nitrate esters finally gradiently distribute in the surface layer of propellant. This ideal structure realizes the burning progressivity during propellant burning. It is essentially different with the deterred propellant and coated propellant, which achieves a progressive increase in burning rate by adding deterring agents. Finally, this paper further introduces the characteristics of the NGDP，including its superior storage stability, internal ballistic performance and low emission of harmful phenomena in weapon applications, which proves the advanced nature of the proposed new tailoring method.