Denitration and nano-ZnO loading strategies to achieve high combustion progressivity, easy ignition and low ablation of the nitrocellulose-based propellant

Gradiently denitrated gun propellant (GDGP) prepared from nitrocellulose-based propellant by denitration strategy has the advantages of high combustion progressivity and storage stability, but still presents the problems of difficult ignition and lower oxygen balance than that of the raw propellant. In addition, the low utilization efficiency of uniformly added ablation inhibitors in conventional propellant formulations can also lead to harmful shooting phenomena. In this paper, nano-zinc oxide (ZnO) with high thermal conductivity as one of the ablation inhibitors was loaded on the surface of GDGP for the first time. FTIR, Raman, XRD, SEM, and XPS characterizations confirmed the preparation and structural integrity of the GDGP and gradiently denitrated gun propellant-ZnO composite (GDGP@ZnO) with ZnO in nano-size and adjustable loading concentration. The test results showed that GDGP@ZnO exhibited higher combustion progressivity than raw propellant, and the appropriate loading concentration of ZnO could enhance the heat conduction across the surface of the gun propellant and improve the ignition performance. The ablation inhibitor loaded on the surface of the gun propellant can provide an ablation inhibition effect while reducing the dosage. This work provides a new idea for the design and fabrication of a novel multifunctional integrated gun propellant with high combustion progressivity, easy ignition and low ablation.