An alchemist in China accidentally invented gunpowder, which was named black powder because of its high carbon content and dark appearance. Its formula is made by mixing sulfur powder, potassium nitrate and charcoal powder. In the reaction equation, the ratio of three reactant coefficients (which should be called stoichiometric number according to national standards) is 1: 2: 3, which can be called "one sulfur, two nitrates and three carbons" for convenience of memory, and sulfur accounts for10% of the total; Potassium nitrate accounts for 75% of the total; Charcoal accounts for 15% of the total.
/kloc-one day in 0/845, it is said that Swiss chemist Schon Bye accidentally knocked over a mixed liquid bottle containing nitric acid and sulfuric acid while doing experiments. The solution flowed on the table, but he couldn't find the rag at the moment. He hurried out and wiped the table with his wife's cotton apron. The apron is soaked in the solution, so it is wet. Schon was worried that his wife would blame him when she saw it, so he went to the kitchen to dry his apron. Unexpectedly, when he approached the stove, he heard a bang, and the apron was completely burned, without any smoke and ash. He was very surprised. Afterwards, he carefully recalled the story and was very happy at once. He realized that he had synthesized new compounds that could be used as explosives. To this end, he repeated the experiment many times and confirmed that the result was correct, so he named it collodion, and later called it nitrocellulose.
The nitrocellulose invented by Schon Bye produced unstable gunpowder, which led to many explosion accidents in the powder magazine. 1884, p vieri, a French chemist and engineer, dissolved nitrocellulose in ether and ethanol, added a proper amount of stabilizer, made it into jelly, pressed it into thin slices, cut it into strips, dried and hardened it, and made the world's first smokeless powder.
1In the early 1980s, the military rifle bullets in European countries basically developed from large-caliber black powder bullets to smaller-caliber smokeless powder bullets.
The invention of smokeless powder promoted the rapid development of propellants, and then appeared such as single-base, double-base and triple-base propellants. Most modern military bullets are loaded with double-base propellant.
In order to improve the combustion performance of propellant, people introduce physical technology to change the shape and internal structure of propellant. For example, the combustion speed of propellant can be accelerated by making the interior of propellant loose and porous.