Early experimental investigation of the C12A7 hollow cathode fed on iodine

Hua, Zhiwei; Wang, Pingyang; Ning, Zhiliang; Ye, Zhanwen; Xu, Zongqi

doi:10.1088/2058-6272/ac4fb4

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…In fact, the hollow cathode independently emits electrons only depending on the discharge between the keeper and cathode tube, so the propellant for the cathode is not necessarily as identical as that for the anode. In terms of the operation of a xenon-fed cathode with an iodine-fed Hall thruster, a analysis was carried out to ensure that the cathode was integrated with the thruster during operation [26]. Therefore, the cathode inserted with lanthanum hexaboride (LaB 6 ) emitter, which has the characteristics of high heat temperature and low evaporation rate, is employed in our tests.…”

Section: Thruster and Cathodementioning

confidence: 99%

Performance investigation of a low-power Hall thruster fed on iodine propellant

XU 徐,

WANG 王,

CAI 蔡

et al. 2024

Plasma Sci. Technol.

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The common propellants used for electric thrusters, such as xenon and krypton, are rare, expensive, and difficult to acquire. Solid iodine attracts much attention with the advantages of low cost, extensive availability, low vapor pressure, and ionization potential. The performance of a low-power iodine-fed Hall thruster matched with a xenon-fed cathode is investigated across a broad range of operation conditions. Regulation of the iodine vapor’s mass flow rates is stably achieved by using a temperature control method of the iodine reservoir. The thrust measurements are finished utilizing a thrust target during the tests. Results show that thrust and anode-specific impulse increase approximately linearly with the increasing iodine mass flow rate. At the nominal power of 200 W class, iodine mass flow rates are 0.62 and 0.93 mg/s, thrusts are 7.19 and 7.58 mN, anode specific impulses are 1184 and 826 s, anode efficiencies are 20.8% and 14.5%, and thrust to power ratios are 35.9 and 37.9 mN/kW under the conditions of 250 V 0.8 A and 200 V 1.0 A, respectively. The operating characteristics of iodine-fed Hall thruster are analyzed in different states. Further work on the measurements of plasma characteristics and experimental optimization will be carried out.

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Section: Thruster and Cathodementioning

confidence: 99%

Performance investigation of a low-power Hall thruster fed on iodine propellant

XU 徐,

WANG 王,

CAI 蔡

et al. 2024

Plasma Sci. Technol.

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“…In recent years the use of storable atomic propellants like bismuth and mercury for high thrust applications, and zinc and magnesium for high specific impulse applications has been investigated [1][2][3][4]. Some molecular propellants have been investigated, such as water (where the thruster operates on hydrogen and oxygen gas created by electrolysis) [5,6], iodine [7][8][9][10][11][12][13], and adamantane [14][15][16], but were all found to have prohibitive disadvantages such as significantly lower performance compared to xenon. A paper on the first in-space demonstration of (low-power) thruster operation on iodine vapor was recently published in Nature [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aromatic Hydrocarbons as Molecular Propellants for Electric Propulsion Thrusters

Borrfors

Harding

Weissenreider

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The aromatic hydrocarbons (AHs) fluorobenzene, naphthalene, and 1fluoronaphthalene are introduced as promising alternatives to xenon as propellant for in-space electric propulsion (EP). These storable molecules have similar mass, lower cost, and lower ionization energies compared to xenon, as well as the critical advantage of low post-ionization fragmentation compared to other molecular propellant candidates. The ionization characteristics of AHs are compared with those of xenon and the diamondoid adamantane, previously evaluated as a molecular propellant for EP. Quantum chemical calculations and BEB theory together with 25 eV electron ionization mass spectrometry (EI-MS) measurements have been used to predict the fragmentation of the AHs and adamantane when ionized in a plasma with an electron temperature of 7 eV (a typical electron temperature in EP plasmas). A high fraction (81 − 8 %) of the detected AH ions originate from intact molecules, compared to 3 % for adamantane. indicating extraordinarily low fragmentation for the selected AHs. The ionization potential of the AHs is similar to that of adamantane but lower compared to xenon (8.14–9.2 eV for the AHs, 9.25 for adamantane and 12.13 eV for xenon). BEB calculations have also been used to predict total ionization cross sections. The calculated ionization cross section of the AHs is comparable to that of adamantane but 3–5 times higher than that of xenon, which together with the low ionization potential can contribute to more efficient ionization. The AHs may have the potential to perform better than xenon, despite the absence of fragmentation in xenon.

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“…The positive ion beam extracted from the thrusters needs to be compensated by electrons which are emitted from the neutralizer to prevent the thrusters from failing [1,6]. Although many types of advanced neutralizers have been developed, there are still some urgent problems in response time, material corrosion, and current control [6][7][8][9]. The life of the EP system is usually determined by the neutralizer.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study of a neutralizer-free gridded ion thruster using radio-frequency self-bias effect

Yang

Guo²,

Bai³

et al. 2023

Plasma Sci. Technol.

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An experimental study on the quasi-neutral beam extracted by a neutralizer-free gridded ion thruster prototype was presented. The prototype was designed using an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source terminated by a double-grid accelerator. The beam characteristics were compared when the accelerator was radio-frequency (RF) biased and direct-current (DC) biased. An RF power supply was applied to the screen grid via a blocking capacitor for the RF acceleration, and a DC power supply was directly connected to the screen grid for the DC acceleration. Argon was used as the propellant gas. Furthermore, the characteristics of the plasma beam, such as the floating potential, the spatial distribution of ion flux, and the ion energy distribution function (IEDF) were measured by a four-grid retarding field energy analyzer. The floating potential results showed that the beam space charge is compensated in the case of RF acceleration without a neutralizer, which is similar to the case of classical DC acceleration with a neutralizer. The ion flux of RF acceleration is 1.17 times higher than that of DC acceleration under the same DC component voltage between the double-grid. Moreover, there are significant differences in the beam IEDFs for RF and DC acceleration. The IEDF of RF acceleration has a widened and multi-peaked profile, and the main peak moves toward the high-energy region with increasing the DC self-bias voltage. In addition, by comparing the IEDFs with RF acceleration frequencies of 3.9 MHz and 7.8 MHz, it is found that the IEDF has a more centered main peak and a narrower energy spread at a higher frequency.

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Early experimental investigation of the C12A7 hollow cathode fed on iodine

Cited by 6 publications

References 16 publications

Performance investigation of a low-power Hall thruster fed on iodine propellant

Performance investigation of a low-power Hall thruster fed on iodine propellant

Aromatic Hydrocarbons as Molecular Propellants for Electric Propulsion Thrusters

Experimental study of a neutralizer-free gridded ion thruster using radio-frequency self-bias effect

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