Propellant: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

A propellant is a gas, liquid or plasma used to move an object by applying a motive force. Common propellants are gasoline, jet fuel and rocket fuel.

In aerosol cans, the propellant is simply a compressed gas. Chlorofluorocarbons were once often used, but have been replaced in recent years due to the negative effects CFCs have on Earth's atmospheric ozone layer.

In ballistics and pyrotechnics, a propellant is a material which burns very rapidly but controllably, to produce thrust by gas pressure and thus accelerate a projectile or rocket. In this sense, common or well known propellants include, for firearms, artillery and solid fuel rockets:

• Gunpowder
• Nitrocellulose
• Cordite
• Special fuels made from ammonium perchlorate and synthetic rubbers

Common propellants for liquid fuelled rockets include:

• RFNA and kerosene or RP-1
• RFNA and UDMH
• Dinitrogen tetroxide and UDMH
• Liquid oxygen and kerosene or RP-1
• Liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen