Laser Additive Technique Tailored for Ir Catalyst Engineering (LATTICE)

Traditional manufacturing techniques of propulsion catalyst are time-consuming, and expensive. Typically, catalysts are made of ceramic or carbon foams with anisotropic pore distributions and coated with platinum metal group elements such as iridium (Ir). The anisotropic pore distribution causes deposition of the coating to be spatially non-uniform resulting in performance variabilities and limited reproducibility. Moreover, foam and coating services are very limited and impact availability, reproducibility, and cost. From a materials stand point, the nature of the ceramic/carbon foam material also makes the catalyst prone to fracture during integration into the thruster reaction chambers, leading to early failures and faulty performance. Additive manufacturing (AM) serves as a modern method to design and manufacture thruster catalysts that enable improved properties, availability, reproducibility, and cost, using AM ultra-fine catalysts. The Laser Additive Technique Tailored for Ir Catalyst Engineering (LATTICE) project seeks to address the aforementioned problems using experimental and integrate computational materials engineering (ICME) tools. LATTICE’s objectives are to advance the Ir-based metal AM technology readiness level by developing methods and materials to generate Ir-based AM isotropic catalyst foams and to achieve design improvements and integration in refractory AM green propulsion chambers to test under prototypic operating environments. By project completion the TRL of Ir AM for propulsion catalyst components will increase from 2 to 5, and possibly 6, if integration is complete and hot fire testing can take place. This work aligns directly with NASA’s Technology Roadmap for Propulsion Systems (TX01) and Materials, Structures, Mechanical Systems, and Manufacturing (TX12) in the focus areas of Chemical Space Propulsion (TX01.1), Advanced Propulsion (TX01.4), Materials (TX12.1) and Manufacturing (TX12.4).

Problem: Traditional manufacturing of green propulsion catalyst is time-consuming, and expensive. Current, ceramic/carbon-based Ir coated catalyst exhibit anisotropic properties leading to low performance and inferior mechanical properties with limited reproducibility. Objective: Advance Platinum Group Metal (PGM)-based AM TRL by developing processes to create PGM AM optimized isotropic catalyst for integration in refractory AM green propulsion chambers to test under prototypic operating environments. STMD Capability Gap Addressed: STMD-PROP-023 (S6-G1): Green Propulsion Transition. Agency Alignment: Propulsion Systems (TX01): Chemical Space Propulsion (TX01.1) and Advanced Propulsion (TX01.4). Materials, Structures, Mechanical Systems, and Manufacturing (TX12): Materials (TX12.1) and Manufacturing (TX12.4). This is a Disruptive technology that uses enabling technology and implements previous CAN/CIF/GCD investment lessons.

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