holthof

These are properties I am fully aware of. However, ammonium nitrate has also some obvious advantages: high specific impulse, non-toxic. Therefore, it would be nice to control the high hygroscopy and temperature instability, to make this a useful oxidizer. It has been done by people before, by using an metal oxide (zinc- or cupric oxide), but the process itself seems to be quite a mystery. Thanks for the quick reply anyway! I will keep searching for a method, and in the mean time stick with the potassium nitrate as oxidizer.

Dear people, First of all: I'm just new to this forum, I hope someone can help me out with this. As an amateur rocketeer, I have quite a lot of experience with solid propellant rocket motors. I have designed and built several myself, up to a class O motor. Normally, I use potassium nitrate as oxidizer and Sorbitol as fuel/binder. The problem with this propellant, however, is it's relatively low specific impulse. Therefore, I would like to try and use ammonium nitrate as oxidizer. This chemical has the unwanted property of forming a new crystal structure at elevated temperatures, causing cracks in the propellant grain. This can be resolved by phase-stabilizing it. My question now is: does anyone know of a procedure for this, that I can follow in my home lab? Thanks in advance.