Investigation of the effects of phase transformations in micro and nano aluminum powders on kinetics of oxidation using thermogravimetric analysis.

Aluminum micro and nanoparticles are key ingredients in the synthesis of nano energetic materials. Hence it is important to characterize the kinetics and the rate controlling process of their oxidation. The literature shows that the mass diffusion and phase transformation within the aluminum oxide shell are important. However, the description of physical processes regarding simultaneous oxidation and phase transformation is lacking. In this paper, the controlled thermogravimetric (TGA) oxidation of 40-60 nm and 1 µm Al powders is investigated at constant heating rates and under isothermal conditions, respectively, upon varying the partial pressure of oxygen. It is found that the core-shell model of homogenous oxidation is applicable to explain the TGA results when the shell does not undergo phase transformation, which predicts the apparent activation energy in good agreement with the literature data. On the other hand, the simultaneous oxidation and phase transformation is able to be addressed using the JMAK model which reveals key parameters of the rate controlling processes. Mass diffusion is indeed rate determining during the oxidation of Al micro and nanopowders while the kinetics of the reaction is fast. Unlike the micron powders, the particle size distribution has a significant effect on the shape of the oxidation curves of the nanopowders.

Combustion Characteristics of Physically Mixed 40 nm Aluminum/Copper Oxide Nanothermites Using Laser Ignition.

This paper reports on the ignition and flame propagation characteristics of aluminum/copper oxide (Al/CuO) nanothermite at different packing density, manufactured from 40 nm commercial Al and CuO nanopowders. A 3.5 W continuous wave laser was used to ignite the samples in argon at atmospheric pressure, and a high speed camera captured the flame propagation. The high speed images revealed that the fast laser heating creates significant material ablation, followed by heat transfer along the heated surface. The bulk ignition occurs near the edge of the top surface, followed by the self-sustained burning. Lightly pressed powders (90% porosity) ignited in ~0.1 ms and the burning front propagated at around 200 m/s, while the dense pellets (40-60% porosity) ignited in ~1 ms and the burning front propagated at around 10 m/s. These results indicate that the reaction mechanism changes from mass convection to heat diffusion with increasing the packing density. The ignition and burn speeds of these Al/CuO nanothermites at different equivalence ratios (ERs), along with SEM images of pre- and post-combustion, illustrate that the homogeneity of the mixture is a critical parameter for optimizing the performance. The Al rich mixtures show significantly lower ignition delays and higher burn speeds.