Steven P. Berg
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Advisor: Dr. Joshua L. Rovey

Abstract
Energetic ionic liquids capable of dual mode chemical monopropellant/bipropellant and electrical electrospray rocket propulsion have been investigated. Of the ionic liquids considered in the study [Bmim][dca], [Bmim][NO3], and [Emim][EtSO4] show favorable physical properties for both modes. An investigation of the chemical performance shows these liquids do not perform well as chemical monopropellants. Chemical bipropellant performance exceeds that of hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide when the ionic liquids are burned with HAN. Considering the ionic liquids as a fuel component in a hybrid monopropellant mixture with HAN oxidizer shows performance exceeding that of both hydrazine and ADN based monopropellant FLP-103 for a mixture of 50% HAN by weight. In general, ionic liquids with higher oxidizer content in the anion will result in better performance for both propulsive modes. A micro reactor has been designed and fabricated to test the thermal, catalytic, and hypergolic ignition properties of these ionic liquids.