Thermodynamics and performance of Al/CuO nanothermites with different storage time

Abstract The storage stability of energetic materials is important for their application. In our previous work, Al/CuO nanothermites was applied to a MEMS-based solid propellant micro thruster (SPM) array because of its short ignition delay and high reaction rate. In the current work, the storage stability of Al/CuO nanothermites, which were prepared by electrospray method and stored with different storage time, was systematically researched. The activation energy of Al/CuO nanothermites were measured by DSC. The ignition temperature and the curve pressure history of Al/CuO nanothermites were measured using T-jump and constant-volume pressurization tests, respectively. Further, the nanothermites were characterized by XRD, XPS, SEM and TEM. The results show that the morphology and mixture uniformity of the nanothermites after a long-time storage did not change significantly. The slow decomposition of NC and the thickening of oxide layer of Al NPs existed in the storage of Al/CuO nanothermites, analysed by XPS. The activation energy (Ea ) of Al/CuO nanothermites after storage for different time was determined using the method of Kissinger, as shown in Figure 1. Ea was decreased from 272.8 kJ/mol to 154 kJ/mol after storage for 13 months. When stored for 0, 7 and 13 months, the peak pressures of Al/CuO nanothermites were 685.8 kPa, 626.3 kPa and 625.5 kPa, respectively. In addition to the ignition temperature, it was 775 °C, 739 °C and 754 °C, respectively. This result indicated that the ignition and combustion properties of Al/CuO nanothermites are obviously reduced when stored for a long time, at room temperature. The full version of this extended abstract will appear in Defence Technology in 2020.