Energetic Materials Laboratory
Department of Chemistry
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India
Dr. Srinivas Dharavath
Associate Professor
Our research group design and synthesize various nitrogen-rich azoles, fused and strained rings containing small molecules which are highly dense, thermally stable, and insensitive towards mechanical stimuli for 'Green' and 'Environmentally friendly' high energy materials (HEM) applications. So far, we have synthesized various poly-nitrogen containing small energetic molecules and salts from commercially available cheap starting materials as HEMs in a simple and straightforward manner. Few synthesized molecules are a better replacement for the existing benchmark energetic materials that meet the requirements of present and future civil, defense, and space applications.
Recent Articles
Biomass Derived Sustainable Hypergolic Rocket Propellant with Hydrogen Peroxide
Sustainable fuels, derived from various renewable biological sources, are having a significant impact on land and marine transportation, as well as on aviation. However, in the case of the space sector, this advancement is limited. In an effort to prepare a sustainable rocket fuel (SRF) from readily available bio-resource, herein we report for the first time the valorization of a widely available biomass – coconut husk, into hypergolic composite fuel. We showed that the hypergolic reactions of various formulations of coconut husk-derived SRFs' with a green oxidizer H2O2 (95%) could be promoted with the addition of catalytic amounts of guanine-containing polymeric complexes of manganese or copper (Mn-GU or Cu-GU). It was found that the top-performing fuel formulation, with a total manganese content of just 2 wt.%, showed an impressive ignition delay time of below 50 ms. Mechanistic studies exploring structure-ignition capability relationships of coconut husk-derived SRF, Mn-GU, and Cu-GU materials revealed that the nitrate content of coconut husk-derived SRF and the metal-ligandcooperation in the Mn-GU and Cu-GU complexes played important roles in the ignition process of our novel SRF formulations
Exploring New Frontiers: Alliance of Pyrazole and Thiadiazole in Energetic Materials
A series of high-performing C-C bonded nitropyrazole and thiadiazole-based energetic materials (compounds 3-7) were synthesized and thoroughly characterized. SC-XRD studies supported the structure of compounds 3, 4, 6, and 7. The synthesized compounds exhibited high densities (≥ 1.77 g cm⁻³), compounds 3 and 5 demonstrating admirable detonation properties (VOD = 8300 and 7265 m s⁻¹; DP = 30.31 and 21.25 GPa, respectively), surpassing the present benchmark explosives HNS and TNT and setting new standards for sulfur-based energetic materials. Notably, compound 3 showed an ignition delay of 13 ms in a hot needle test, indicating its potential as an igniter.