The U.S. Army has established a need for an energetic, light-curable binder system. A known energetic pre-polymer was synthetically modified producing a novel material specifically designed to meet this need. Incorporation of this novel pre-polymer into a functional binder system was investigated through an iterative design of experiments. A screening, half fractional factorial design was followed by an I-optimal augmentation to provide high model fidelity with a minimal number of experimental runs. Factors built into the design included the type and amount of curing agent, quantity of photo-initiator, and intensity of the curing light source. Several analyses were performed before, during, and after curing the binder mixtures to provide an in-depth understanding of the material. This presentation will cover the synthesis process employed to create the pre-polymer as well as neat material characteristics. Initial results from time-lapsed FTIR analyses, viscosities, and mechanical properties from the binder DOE will also be presented. While this system is elaborate and extremely robust, a proposed optimization of the binder ingredients and cure parameters will be discussed.

Light-curable energetic binder synthesis and optimization DOE

255th National Meeting (2018)

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