Sulfate-Based Nanothermite: A Green Substitute of Primary Explosive Containing Lead

Abstract

Currently, synthesizing a “green” alternative for primary explosives has become a new challenge for researchers, therefore the feasibility of sulfate-based nanothermite n-Al/CuSO4·5H2O was investigated in this work. n-Al/CuSO4·5H2O was prepared by electrostatic spraying (ES), which formed unified microspheres; CuSO4·5H2O particles were coated with n-Al particles. The reactivity was initially evaluated using thermogravimetry (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and the results show that the heat release of n-Al/CuSO4·5H2O (ES) is 1.6 kJ/g more than that of n-Al/CuSO4·5H2O (PM). A high-speed camera and ignition experiments in a confined bomb were used to assess the combustion performance of the two samples. Results show that n-Al/CuSO4·5H2O (ES) exhibited outstanding performance for flame, peak pressure, and pressurization rate. The combustion in the confined bomb experiment also demonstrates that a molar ratio up to 8:1 can be the optimum ratio for the reaction between the fuel and the oxidizer. To compare the performance of metallic oxide nanothermite, n-Al/CuO was prepared by physical mixing. The n-Al/CuSO4·5H2O nanothermite shows more gas release and it is safer than that of n-Al/CuO nanothermite, which was confirmed by the results of combustion in the confined bomb and electrostatic sensitivity experiments. Moreover, in this investigation n-Al/CuSO4·5H2O (ES) was used to directly initiate RDX which is a feasible design for replacing lead-based primary explosives.

Sustainable Electrosynthesis of Porous CuN3 Films for Functional Energetic Chips

“…Primary explosives can instantaneously get detonated from combustion (or deflagration) upon a small stimulus of heat, impact, static electricity, or friction. Because primary explosives can generate a powerful shockwave to initiate detonation of a less sensitive secondary explosive or propellant, they are widely used as initiators (e.g., detonators and primers) for a variety of military purposes and civilian applications. − At present, lead azide and lead styphnate, which are toxic to not only the environment but also the human health, still act as the two most common primary explosives. − With the rapid development of miniature energy-consumption devices, the lead-based primary explosives hardly meet their dosage limitation so as not to satisfy the minimum requirement in energy output. , Additionally, the preparation methods of lead-based primary explosives are incompatible enough with microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology to restrain their applications. Therefore, it is urgently desirable to develop a scalable alternative to currently used primary explosives.…”

Safe Fabrication, Thermal Decomposition Kinetics, and Mechanism of Nanoenergetic Composite NBC/CL-20

“…Such as nano-RDX, , nano-HMX, , nano-CL-20, , and nano-NC are prepared and exhibit excellent sensitivities, including mechanical properties, thermal properties, and so on. Up till now, there have been many fabrication methods reported to prepare nanoenergetics, including sol–gel method, mechanical grinding method, freeze evaporation method, electrostatic spraying method, and physical vapor deposition method. Unfortunately, the nanoexplosive particles are easily agglomerated to units, which can not only bring down the energy performance but also encounter the processing technology problems of CL-20 used in propellants and explosives .…”

Progress in Electrohydrodynamic Atomization Preparation of Energetic Materials with Controlled Microstructures

“…Electrosprayed Al/CuO/NC powders combust more violently and efficiently, as shown in Figure 3 i, leading to a ~50% increase in the specific impulse compared to the mechanically mixed counterpart, 27.2 s vs. 17.7 s. The addition of 10 wt% ammonium perchlorate (AP) increased the specific impulse of Al/CuO/NC from 22.2 s to 61.0 s [ 45 ]. Electrospray-assembled Al/CuSO 4 ·5H 2 O particles can replace primary explosives and directly initiate the detonation of the RDX loaded in a detonator [ 47 ]. Essentially speaking, an electrospray is an atomization technology used to generate fine droplets for subsequent applications.…”