Thermal behavior and combustion performance of Al/MoO₃ nanothermites with addition of poly (vinylidene fluorine) using electrospraying

Abstract To investigate the effect of the addition of poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) on nanothermites, Al/MoO3/PVDF energetic nanocomposites were prepared using electrospraying method. As a control group, Al/MoO3 was also designed. Then, both samples were tested by FE-SEM, XRD and TG-DSC. TG-DSC results showed that the Al/MoO3/PVDF energetic nanocomposites released more than 934.0 J g−1 with two obvious exothermic peaks. Compared with the control group of 800.7 J g−1 heat, it changed the thermal performance to some extent. There were Mo2C among the residues products after the reaction via XRD. The activation energy (Ea) was analyzed using the Kissinger method under different heating rates by DSC. The addition of PVDF reduced the Ea of the thermites. To explore the combustion performance, a preliminary experiment was designed. The Al/MoO3/PVDF energetic nanocomposites were easier to ignite and the burning was more durable, which was significant in solid propulsion and applications requiring extended combustion time.