Experimental and kinetic modeling study of tetramethylethylenediamine: A promising green propellant fuel

Tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) is a promising green propellant fuel and reactivity promoter. How-ever, the reactions between TMEDA and O 2 are usually overlooked under ignition conditions. In this study, significant low-temperature reactivity was observed for 2%TMEDA/O2 mixtures, and autoignition could occur even at 470 K. To probe the chemical kinetics of TMEDA/O2, ignition delay times were measured in a rapid compression machine and a high-pressure shock tube. TMEDA pyrolysis products were also obtained in a single pulse shock tube. The autoignition of TMEDA/O2 in rapid compression machine ex-periments showed multi-stage heat release, a characteristic which became more obvious at oxygen-lean conditions. During the oxidation experiments, a non-Arrhenius temperature dependence of ignition delay time was observed. A chemical kinetic model of TMEDA was developed hierarchically, based on current reaction kinetics knowledge about hydrocarbons, small amines and NOx. Ignition delay times and pyrol-ysis products measured in this study, along with experimental data on small amines from the literature, were used to validate the kinetic model, which generally produced good predictions across different tem-perature, pressure and equivalence ratio conditions.(c) 2022 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study investigates the reactions between Tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) and O2 under ignition conditions. Significant low-temperature reactivity and autoignition of 2% TMEDA/O2 mixtures were observed. Ignition delay times were measured in a rapid compression machine and a high-pressure shock tube, and TMEDA pyrolysis products were obtained in a single pulse shock tube. A hierarchical chemical kinetic model of TMEDA was developed and validated using experimental data, showing good predictions across different conditions.