Preparation and performance studies on organic-inorganic phase change composites based on zeolitic imidazolate and paraffin for reducing gun barrel erosion

With the increasing requirements of tank guns for higher muzzle velocity and faster firing rate, some high energetic additives, such as cyclotrimethylene trinitramine (RDX) and cyclotetramethylene tetranitramine (HMX), have been widely used in high energy gun propellants. Consequently, the gun barrel erosion induced by the burning of high energy gun propellants has been an important issue that affects the lifespan of gun barrels. In order to address this problem, erosion reducing additives, including TiO2, paraffin, polyurethane or a combination of these, were introduced into the gun propellant or propellant charge system to alleviate the gun barrel erosion. In this study, a novel organic-inorganic phase change composite paraffin/ZIF-67 with solid paraffin (SP) as the phase change component and zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67) as the matrix was designed and prepared as anti-erosion additives. The designed composite has a high thermal storage capacity of 93.88 J/g when the ZIF-67 content is 5 wt%. The erosion reducing effect of paraffin/ZIF-67 was determined by erosion tube test. The results show that the introduction of paraffin/ZIF-67 can improve the erosion-reducing efficiency of gun propellants. Compared with the control sample, the erosion-reducing efficiency of paraffin/ZIF-67 exhibited a faster increase with the increase of their contents, having the maximum erosion-reducing efficiency of 39.2 % when the addition of paraffin/ZIF-67 is 3.2 wt%. The incorporation of paraffin/ZIF-67 in the composites has a cooperative effect of each component on reducing gun barrel erosion. The developed organic-inorganic phase change composites exhibit great potential in the application of reducing gun barrel erosion, providing a new way for the development of erosion reducing additives. •Performance of organic-inorganic phase change composites based on ZIF-67 and paraffin.•New application of ZIFs composites on the gun propellants.•Improvement of erosion-reducing efficiency of paraffin/ZIF-67.•Thoroughly study on the erosion-reducing mechanism of paraffin/ZIF-67.