The Advanced Centre of Research in High Energy Materials (ACRHEM), a DRDO Centre of Excellence in University of Hyderabad (UoH), has been granted a patent entitled ‘Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadiene (HTPB) based Polyurethanes’.
The inventors of the patent are Prof. Tushar Jana of the School of Chemistry and adjunct faculty in ACRHEM, and two of his associates- Dr. Bikash Kumar Sikder who worked as a post-doctoral fellow in ACRHEM and Moumita Dhara, Ph.D. student in the School of Chemistry.
The HTPB, a viscous liquid has several uses, one of the most important applications is in solid rocket propellant (SRP) where it binds the oxidizing agent and other ingredients into a solid but elastic mass. It is an inert prepolymer that contributes nearly 10 per cent to 15 per cent mass of the propellant compositions, replacing the inert mass by energetic molecules and retaining inherent properties is a very crucial step to obtain an energetic binder.
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According to the UoH, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), DRDO and various space and defence agencies across the globe, employ HTPB based binder to manufacture composite propellant systems. The inventors believe that the binder material described in this invention has strong potential to replace the traditionally used HTPB binder in the manufacturing of solid rocket propellant.