Publications

Use of step scan FT-IR and multivariate curve resolution to understand aging of propellant binder as a function of depth into the polymer material

Rivera, Dion A.; Rivera, Dion A.; Alam, Mary K.

A sample of polymeric propellant binder was aged from 0 to 60 days at 95 C and analyzed using FT-IR step scan photoacoustic spectroscopy. This technique has the ability of to obtain spectra of the polymer as a function of depth into the polymer material. Multivariate curve resolution was applied to the spectra data obtained to extract the contributions of the aged and un-aged spectral components from the spectra. It was found that multivariate curve resolution could efficiently separate highly overlapped spectra and yielded insights into the aging process.