title: Preparation and reactivity of gasless nanostructured energetic materials.
abstract: High-Energy Ball Milling (HEBM) is a ball milling process where a powder mixture placed in the ball mill is subjected to high-energy collisions from the balls. Among other applications, it is a versatile technique that allows for effective preparation of gasless reactive nanostructured materials with high energy density per volume (Ni+Al, Ta+C, Ti+C). The structural transformations of reactive media, which take place during HEBM, define the reaction mechanism in the produced energetic composites. Varying the processing conditions permits fine tuning of the milling-induced microstructures of the fabricated composite particles. In turn, the reactivity, i.e., self-ignition temperature, ignition delay time, as well as reaction kinetics, of high energy density materials depends on its microstructure. Analysis of the milling-induced microstructures suggests that the formation of fresh oxygen-free intimate high surface area contacts between the reagents is responsible for the enhancement of their reactivity. This manifests itself in a reduction of ignition temperature and delay time, an increased rate of chemical reaction, and an overall decrease of the effective activation energy of the reaction. The protocol provides a detailed description for the preparation of reactive nanocomposites with tailored microstructure using short-term HEBM method. It also describes a high-speed thermal imaging technique to determine the ignition/combustion characteristics of the energetic materials. The protocol can be adapted to preparation and characterization of a variety of nanostructured energetic composites.
authors: Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame.
authors: Khachatur V
authors: KV
authors: Manukyan
authors: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Notre Dame.
authors: Christopher E
authors: CE
authors: Shuck
authors: Center of Functional Nano-Ceramics, National University of Science and Technology, "MISIS"
authors: Alexander S
authors: AS
authors: Rogachev
authors: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Notre Dame; amoukasi@nd.edu.
authors: Alexander S
authors: AS
authors: Mukasyan
mesh_terms: D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D053761:Nanocomposites / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D011208:Powders / Q000737:chemistry; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D011208:Powders