Gelled flares based on ionic liquids

Ionic liquids are liquid salts which are in the focus of recent material research due to their unique properties like very low vapor pressure and electric conductivity.
In the field of energetic materials compositions, sensitive to electrostatic discharge are magnesium Teflon® / Viton® mixtures (MTV), which are used as standard decoy flares. Instead of using ionic liquids only as an additive like graphite, fluorine containing ionic liquids were used as the main fluorine source. The produced magnesium ionic liquid (MIL) flares based on 4-Amino-1-methyl-1,2,4-triazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate and 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide were gelled in order to prevent sedimentation of the magnesium powder. Upon ignition the MIL compositions showed a higher flame volume compared to a standard MTV formulation in service. By tailoring ionic liquids the pyrotechnic mixtures can be tuned fitting the different demands. The expected advantage of gelled flares compared to solid strands is the possibility to adapt the decoy on the real threat by tuning the ejected amount and spraying figures and shapes to improve the irritating capabilities against new seeker systems.