Combustion and explosion of nanostructured silicon in microsystem devices

The Burning Rate of Energetic Films of Nanostructured Porous Silicon

“…Similarly, the explosive performance of pSi energetic materials has been shown to depend on the size and depth of the pores (in turn influenced by the etching variables of HF concentration, wafer properties, etching current and time), the choice of oxidizing agent and ratio of Si to oxidizing agent 5–7, 11. Traditionally, the pSi energetic material research to date has presented experimental data based on the luminous intensity of the reaction, measured by photodiodes 5–7, 11. A significant disadvantage to this approach is that it is difficult to compare the results with other studies of energetic materials, which typically use data such as burning rates or detonation velocities for comparative analysis: there is a conspicuous lack of such data in the published literature concerning pSi energetic materials.…”

“…They found that, on freshly prepared surfaces, the explosive reaction would occur spontaneously at temperatures as low as 4.2 K. On aged pSi, the surface was stable enough to not explode spontaneously, but could be initiated as a result of mechanical impact or exposure to an ultraviolet laser. Research has accelerated since this work and numerous groups have found that various oxidizing agents are capable of producing strong explosive reactions 6–12. These agents typically include sodium perchlorate, aluminium or potassium nitrates, sulphur, potassium permanganate, and potassium dichromate, with different groups reporting varying degrees of success with these oxidisers:6–12 sodium perchlorate is reported as delivering the most violent reaction, with oxidizing agents yielding weaker or even insignificant reactions 8, 11.…”

“…Highlighting the importance that the morphology of the material has on its burning characteristics, a recent review of nanoscale energetic materials19 demonstrated that nanoscale particles of copper oxide/aluminium thermites displayed reaction velocities approximately four times greater than the same composition prepared with micrometer‐sized particles and that, by controlling the particle size, one can tune the energetic behaviour of the material. Similarly, the explosive performance of pSi energetic materials has been shown to depend on the size and depth of the pores (in turn influenced by the etching variables of HF concentration, wafer properties, etching current and time), the choice of oxidizing agent and ratio of Si to oxidizing agent 5–7, 11. Traditionally, the pSi energetic material research to date has presented experimental data based on the luminous intensity of the reaction, measured by photodiodes 5–7, 11.…”

The influence of pore size and oxidizing agent on the energetic properties of porous silicon

“…The influences on the explosive performance of these systems has been shown [8][9][10]16] to include the size and depth of the pores (in turn influenced by the etching variables of HF concentration, wafer properties, etching current and time), the choice of oxidising agent and ratio of Si to oxidising agent. This work will explore the effect that some of these influences have on the energetic performance of pSi.…”

“…They found that on freshly prepared surfaces, the explosive reaction would occur spontaneously at temperatures as low as 4.2 K. On aged pSi, the surface was stable enough to not explode spontaneously, but could be initiated as a result of mechanical impact or heating by an ultraviolet laser. Research has accelerated since these works, and numerous groups have found that various oxidising agents are capable of producing the strong explosive reactions [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. These agents typically include sodium perchlorate, aluminium or potassium nitrates, sulphur, potassium permanganate and potassium dichromate, with different groups reporting varying degrees of success with these agents.…”