Effect of solute mixing in the liquid propellant of a pulsed plasma thruster

Sodium chloride or ammonia was dissolved in the water propellant of pulsed plasma thrusters to improve the performance. Pulsed plasma thrusters using liquid propellant utilize water as attractive alternative instead of Teflon. Water propellant enables in controlling propellant mass flow and leads to high specific impulse. However, liquid propellant pulsed plasma thrusters have larger plasma resistance and lower thrust power ratio than the common Teflon propellant thruster. Here, sodium chloride and ammonia solution of water were examined to decrease that plasma resistance. As a result, emission lines attributed from the solute were observed using sodium chloride aqueous solution propellant, and a 5% reduction of the plasma resistance was shown, and the thrust to power was increased. However, ammonia aqueous solution decreased the thruster performance.