Related compounds Molar mass 96.04 g/mol | Formula H4N2O4 Density 1.84 g/cm³ | |
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Hydroxylammonium nitrate or hydroxylamine nitrate (HAN) is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula NH3OHNO3. It is a salt derived from hydroxylamine and nitric acid. In its pure form, it is a colourless hygroscopic solid. It has potential to be used as a rocket propellant either as a solution in monopropellants or bipropellants.
Contents
Properties
The compound is a salt with separated hydroxyammonium and nitrate ions. Hydroxylammonium nitrate is unstable because it contains both a reducing agent (hydroxylammonium cation) and an oxidizer (nitrate), the situation being analogous to ammonium nitrate. It is usually handled as an aqueous solution. The solution is corrosive and toxic, and may be carcinogenic. Solid HAN is unstable, particularly in the presence of trace amounts of metal salts.
Applications
HAN is a potential rocket propellant, both in the solid form as a solid propellant oxidizer, and in the aqueous solution in monopropellant rockets, including the Network Centric Airborne Defense Element boost-phase interceptor being developed by Raytheon. It is typically bonded with glycidyl azide polymer (GAP), hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), or carboxy-terminated polybutadiene (CTPB) and requires preheating to 200-300 °C to decompose. The catalyst is a noble metal, similar to the other monopropellants that use silver or palladium.
It will be used in a fuel/oxidizer blend known as "AF-M315E" in the high thrust engines of the Green Propellant Infusion Mission in 2017. The specific impulse of AF-M315E is 257 s.
HAN is sometimes used in nuclear reprocessing as a reducing agent for plutonium ions.