ACCELERATED HYPERGOLIC IGNITION WITH LOWERING OF TEMPERATURE

Hypergolic liquid fuels known to undergo cationic polymerization at th e preignition stage with red fuming nitric acid (RFNA) as oxidizer hav e been found to exhibit synergistic hypergolic ignition at zero and su bzero temperatures. This accelerated ignition with lowering of tempera ture has been ascribed to negative activation energy usually associate d with most cationic polymerization systems. The best ignition was obt ained with blends of fuels consisting of norbornadiene and furfuryl al cohol which underwent strong cationic polymerization with protonic aci ds and possibly Diels-Alder addition to each other.