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Melting and Oxidation of Nanometer Size Aluminum Powders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Mikhaylo A Trunov ,
Swati Umbrakar ,
Mirko Schoenitz ,
Joseph T Mang  and
Edward L Dreizin
Mikhaylo A Trunov
Affiliation:
[email protected], New Jersey Institute Of Technology, Mechanical Engineering, United States
Swati Umbrakar
Affiliation:
[email protected], New Jersey Institute Of Technology, Mechanical Engineering, United States
Mirko Schoenitz
Affiliation:
[email protected], New Jersey Institute Of Technology, Mechanical Engineering, United States
Joseph T Mang
Affiliation:
[email protected], Los Alamos National Laboratory, United States
Edward L Dreizin
Affiliation:
[email protected], New Jersey Institute Of Technology, Mechanical Engineering, United States
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Abstract

Recently, nanometer-sized aluminum powders became available commercially and their use as potential additives to propellants, explosives, and pyrotechnics has attracted significant interest. It has been suggested that very low melting temperatures are expected for nano-sized aluminum powders and that such low melting temperatures could accelerate oxidation and trigger ignition much earlier than for regular, micron-sized aluminum powders. The objective of this work was to investigate experimentally the melting and oxidation behavior of nano-sized aluminum powders. Powder samples with three different nominal sizes of 44, 80, and 121 nm were provided by Nanotechnologies Inc. The particle size distributions were measured using small angle x-ray scattering. Melting was studied by differential scanning calorimetry where the powders were heated from room temperature to 750 °C in argon environment. Thermogravimetric analysis was used to measure the mass increase indicative of oxidation while the powders were heated in an oxygen-argon gas mixture. The measured melting curves were compared to those computed using the experimental particle size distributions and thermodynamic models describing the melting temperature and enthalpy as functions of the particle size. The melting behavior predicted by different models correlated with the experimental observations only qualitatively. Characteristic step-wise oxidation was observed for all studied nanopowders. The observed oxidation behavior was well interpreted considering the recently established kinetics of oxidation of micron-sized aluminum powders. No correlation was found between the melting and oxidation of aluminum nanopowders.

Keywords

nanostructureAloxidation
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 896: Symposium H – Multifunctional Energetic Materials , 2005 , 0896-H04-06
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

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