In recent years, there has been significantly increased interest in using nitrous oxide as an oxidizer in hybrid rocket motor systems. The attraction of nitrous oxide is its low relative toxicity and high vapor pressure, potentially enabling self-pressurizing systems. Its decomposition is highly exothermic with a large energy barrier, typically requiring high temperature (700°C) to achieve appreciable decomposition rates. One solution is to use a catalyst to enable decomposition at significantly lower temperatures. This Paper uses a commercially available rhodium-based catalyst in a custom test cell to decompose nitrous oxide at temperatures well below the uncatalyzed self-sustaining decomposition temperature. This Paper also demonstrates that decomposition using the tested catalyst is direct to ${\mathrm{N}}_2$ and ${\mathrm{O}}_2$ at all temperature ranges observed and is incomplete with residual ${\mathrm{N}}_2\mathrm{O}$ present at lower temperatures. Further, this Paper couples our test cell with a counterflow burner to ignite and burn hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene fuel with the decomposed nitrous oxide and evaluate performance via fuel regression rate at a variety of conditions. The fuel autoignites when the gas exit temperature reaches 750°C, and regression rate is shown to increase with both mass flux and temperature.

近年来，在混合火箭发动机系统中使用一氧化二氮作为氧化剂的兴趣大大增加。一氧化二氮的吸引力在于其较低的相对毒性和较高的蒸气压，从而有可能实现自加压系统。它的分解是高放热反应，具有较大的能垒，通常需要高温（700°C）才能达到可观的分解速率。一种解决方案是使用催化剂以在较低的温度下分解。本文在定制测试池中使用市售的铑基催化剂在远低于未催化自持分解温度的温度下分解一氧化二氮。本文还证明了使用经测试的催化剂进行分解可直接${\mathrm{ñ}}_2$ 和 ${\mathrm{Ø}}_2$ 在观察到的所有温度范围内均不完全，且残留 ${\mathrm{ñ}}_2\mathrm{Ø}$存在于较低的温度下。此外，本文将我们的测试单元与逆流燃烧器相结合，以点燃并燃烧带有分解的一氧化二氮的羟基封端的聚丁二烯燃料，并通过在各种条件下的燃料降解率来评估性能。当气体出口温度达到750°C时，燃料会自动点燃，并且回归速率随质量通量和温度的升高而增加。