Project Title:

Advance Fullerenes Based Ablative Coolant for Small Chemical Space

Materials and Electrochemical Research (MER) Corporation
7960 S. Kolb Road
Tucson, AZ 85706

93-1		11.02	1980			Amount Requested $70,000

Advance Fullerenes Based Ablative Coolant for Small Chemical Space 
Propulsion Systems

Abstract:

Fullerenes - the recently discovered closed cage forms of carbo - 
have unique and unprecedented pure carbon based thermal properties.  
Advanced materials based on fullerenes and fullerenes all by 
themselves are lightweight, long lived, environmentally benign and 
are materials that have very low thermal conductivity and which 
sublime at high temperatures.  These properties make fullerenes and 
fullerene based advanced materials ideally suited for ablation 
based applications.

This proposal will establish, as part of Phase I work, the proof-
of-concept that fullerenes will ablatively cool combustion chambers 
and nozzles.  The effort envisioned is to first deposit fullerene 
films of varying thickness onto an experimental sized combustion 
chamber and nozzle.  Next, the surface will be exposed to high 
temperature flame environment and the temperature of the combustion 
chamber wall will be monitored.  The Phase II work will focus on 
optimizing the performance of fullerene films as ablative coolants.

Ablative coolant for space; industrial applications include fire 
protection films, safety lining for pump pistons and boilers.

Fullerenes, Ablation, Cooling, Combustion Chambers, Light Weight.  
Low Thermal Conductivity, Sublimation