Effect of heating rates on the energy release application of Al/MLG/Fe₂O₃ nanothermite

ABSTRACT

Al/MLG/Fe₂O₃ nanothermite mixture was successfully synthesised by the physical mixing and ultrasonication technique. The synthesised nanothermite samples were characterised by XRD, FESEM, EDS, TEM, Raman spectroscopy and DSC/TG. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the constituent phases remain chemical stable during the synthesis process. The surface morphology of samples was observed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), besides this, elemental composition of the sample was checked by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The homogenous mixing between the constituents was observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The structural stability of graphene sheets was examined by using Raman spectroscopy. The energy release of nanothermite powder was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) at different heating rates i.e. 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 °C/min. The loss of mass during the thermite reaction was observed by thermogravimetric analysis (TG). Results indicate that the overall energy released of Al/(MLG 12 wt%)/Fe₂O₃ was increased by increasing the heating rate upto 25 °C/min and reached the maximum energy release of 1860 J/g, which is 46.5% of its theoretical value i.e. 4000J/g. The model-free Starink method was used to calculate the activation energy of the nanothermite sample and the observed value is 76 kJ/g.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy release
• nanothermites
• physical mixing
• energetic materials
• multi-layered graphene

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).