Ru/Al Multilayers Integrate Maximum Energy Density and Ductility for Reactive Materials.

Established and already commercialized energetic materials, such as those based on Ni/Al for joining, lack the adequate combination of high energy density and ductile reaction products. To join components, this combination is required for mechanically reliable bonds. In addition to the improvement of existing technologies, expansion into new fields of application can also be anticipated which triggers the search for improved materials. Here, we present a comprehensive characterization of the key parameters that enables us to classify the Ru/Al system as new reactive material among other energetic systems. We finally found that Ru/Al exhibits the unusual integration of high energy density and ductility. For example, we measured reaction front velocities up to 10.9 (± 0.33) ms(-1) and peak reaction temperatures of about 2000 °C indicating the elevated energy density. To our knowledge, such high temperatures have never been reported in experiments for metallic multilayers. In situ experiments show the synthesis of a single-phase B2-RuAl microstructure ensuring improved ductility. Molecular dynamics simulations corroborate the transformation behavior to RuAl. This study fundamentally characterizes a Ru/Al system and demonstrates its enhanced properties fulfilling the identification requirements of a novel nanoscaled energetic material.

Molecular dynamics simulation of radiation damage in CaCd6 quasicrystal cubic approximant up to 10 keV.

Due to the peculiar nature of the atomic order in quasicrystals, examining phase transitions in this class of materials is of particular interest. Energetic particle irradiation can provide a way to modify the structure locally in a quasicrystal. To examine irradiation-induced phase transitions in quasicrystals on the atomic scale, we have carried out molecular dynamics simulations of collision cascades in CaCd6 quasicrystal cubic approximant with energies up to 10 keV at 0 and 300 K. The results show that the threshold energies depend surprisingly strongly on the local coordination environments. The energy dependence of stable defect formation exhibits a power-law dependence on cascade energy, and surviving defects are dominated by Cd interstitials and vacancies. Only a modest effect of temperature is observed on defect survival, while irradiation temperature increases lead to a slight increase in the average size of both vacancy clusters and interstitial clusters.