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The second reason for zip fuel's abandonment was that the stuff itself proved disappointing. In jets, instead of burning completely, it produced a sticky residue which clung to turbine blades. Boron additives in rocket fuels also failed. The combustion process involved proved unexpectedly complex, and the promised additional energy was not forthcoming.
廢棄拉鏈燃料的第二個原因是這種燃料本身令人失望。在噴氣機中，它不會完全燃燒，而是會產生粘在渦輪葉片上的粘性殘留物。火箭燃料中的硼添加劑也失敗了，其中涉及的燃燒過程出乎意料地復雜，而且所承諾的額外能量并沒有到來。
The navy's notice suggests, though, that boron is back. The boffins behind it think that new physical forms of the element, known as allotropes, may offer ways around both the partial-combustion and the toxicity problems. Allotropes of an element can have very different properties from each other (graphite and diamond, for example, are both allotropes of carbon). The organisers suggest a novel boron allotrope, perhaps interlaced at the molecular level with a suitable oxidising agent, might yield a completely combustible, non-toxic fuel, and they are asking the country's chemists to bring them one.
然而，海軍的公告表明硼又回來了。研究人員認為，這種元素的新物理形式，即同素異形體，可能會提供解決部分燃燒和毒性問題的方法。一種元素的同素異形體可能彼此具有非常不同的性質(例如，石墨和金剛石都是碳的同素異形體)。組織者認為，一種新型的硼同素異象(也許在分子水平上與合適的氧化劑交錯)可以產生一種完全可燃、無毒的燃料，他們正請求英國的化學家們給他們帶一個。
Whether such allotropes exist remains to be seen. But America is not the only place working on the idea of boron-powered jets and rockets. China is interested, too. A project involving gelled fuel that has particles of boron suspended in it is under way at the National University of Defence Technology, in Changsha. The objective is to develop fuel for ramjets, a type of engine that operates efficiently only above Mach 3. So far, the researchers involved have managed to produce one that is 40% boron and yet burns more or less completely. One way or another, then, it looks plausible that boron-based fuels may get the green light.
這種同素異形體是否存在還有待觀察。但美國并不是唯一一個致力于硼動力噴氣機和火箭的地方，中國也頗感興趣。位于長沙的國防科技大學正在進行一個涉及懸浮硼顆粒的膠凝燃料的項目，目的是為沖壓式噴氣發動機(效率僅高于3馬赫)開發燃料。到目前為止，參與研究的研究人員已經成功制造出了一種含有40%硼且幾乎可完全燃燒的燃料。無論如何，以硼為基礎的燃料可能會獲得批準。
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