And, in July this year, the NASA New Frontiers mission ‘Juno’ made its incredible insertion into the orbit of Jupiter powered by hydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide. The Curiosity Rover, which has been resident on Mars since 2012, used hydrazine to land on the red planet. Today, some military vehicles use hydrazine, but it is employed mostly in extraterrestrial exploration. This, along with fuel leaks, killed more pilots than enemy fire. As you can imagine, these planes had a tendency to explode. The first hydrazine fuel was used with methanol during world war two in the Messerschmitt Me 163B the world’s first – and last – rocket-powered fighter plane. Ammonia is also broken down – this is endothermic and takes away some of the heat energy, but produces more nitrogen and hydrogen gases that are forced out of the rocket through a tight nozzle to create thrust. Within milliseconds, the reaction chamber can exceed 800☌ due to these extremely exothermic reactions. As the fuel burns, three reactions take place, decomposing hydrazine into ammonia, nitrogen and hydrogen gases. Mixing it with oxidising agent dinitrogen tetroxide, N 2O 4, creates a hypergolic mixture – a mixture so explosive, no ignition is required.

Hydrazine is also used as rocket fuel propellant. Sodium azide decomposes rapidly when it gets warm, creating huge volumes of nitrogen gas. Hydrazine is used as a monomer in polymerizations, mostly for polyurethane coatings and adhesives as a corro - sion inhibitor in water treatment, mainly for the removal of dissolved oxygen for pH adjustment in the feed water of boilers and for the removal of solids from steam generators, notably in nuclear and thermal power-generation plants. Sodium azide, the compound that activates car air bags, is manufactured directly from hydrazine and sodium nitrate. The explosive nature of hydrazine has been put to good use, too. As a powerful reducing agent, it acts as an oxygen scavenger, reducing metal oxides back into metals, and literally turning the chemical clock back on corrosion processes. Hydrazine can even be found in fossil fuels and nuclear power stations. But it also requires more manufacturing – it all depends on the balance. It actually produces a little more energy than hydrogen, is easier to store because it’s a liquid at room temperature, and avoids the need for an expensive platinum catalyst. In some types of hydrogen fuel cell, hydrazine breaks down to make nitrogen and water and gives out energy in an exothermic reaction. It could even be an environmentally friendly fuel. Although it is toxic to us directly, hydrazine rapidly breaks down in oxygen, making release into the environment low risk. Hydrazine is also used to make pesticides and pharmaceuticals. These gases form bubbles in the liquid, which then polymerises to leave a lightweight, foamy plastic.īut hydrazine gives us more than just disposable cups and packaging: polymer foams are used to make insulation panels for our homes, and even spandex.

When azodicarbonamide is bubbled through a liquid polymer precursor, it thermally decomposes to nitrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and ammonia. The most common use of hydrazine is to make foaming agents like azodicarbonamide. So how does such a simple molecule do all that? The answer lies in the industries that use it.

Hydrazine chordaid