Solid nitrogen: new fuel for spacecraft?

2002/05/15 Lasa Iglesias, Aitziber - STEAM Hezkuntza arloko arduraduna

• Kimika
• Astronautika
• Energia

Hydrazine, a compound rich in nitrogen, is the fuel of many modern spacecraft. But the Bartlett team believes that the N 5 + N 5 will have a double calorific power than hydrazine. If this were so, the fuel tanks would be smaller, so it would be possible to build smaller spacecraft, as the largest volume of the current spacecraft is occupied by fuel.

Nitrogen has a lot to do with explosives and, in general, with fuels. In fact, nitroglycerin and TNT (trinitrotoluene) are well-known explosives. This has to do with the stability of gas N 2. That is to say, in compounds with more than two nitrogen atoms there is a great tendency to the formation of N 2, in which a lot of energy is released. This is the case of hydrazine.

The compound announced by the Bartlett working group will be carried out by connecting groups of five nitrogen, one of them with positive load (N 5 + ) and the other with negative load (N 5 - ). This will form a crystalline network N 5 + N 5 - (as with ions Na + and Cl - in sodium chloride, common salt).

Half of the compound N 5 + N 5 - (N 5 +) was obtained three years ago, but so far no one has managed to synthesize N 5 -. However, Florida's chemicals believe it should have a ring of five nitrogen atoms, similar to the pentadienyl ring with negative carbon load.

If this is achieved, the discovery will be huge in the world of fuels.