Fabrication of high electrostatic safety metastable Al/CuO nanocomposites doped with nitro-functionalized graphene with fast initiation ability and tunable reaction performance

Abstract

Inspired by the crucial role of the carbon materials in tuning the reactivity of energetic materials, in this paper, nitrated graphene oxide (NGO) was endowed as an additive, and its catalytic effects on Al/CuO nanocomposites were studied. Compared with Al/CuO, the obtained composites showed superior properties in heat of reaction and pressurization rate by introducing a certain amount of NGO as an energetic additive. The results of the T-jump and propagation behavior tests show that the ignition temperature and the propagation velocity of the metastable Al/CuO/NGO composites are tunable due to the special partially crinkled structure of NGO. In addition, benefiting from the high electrical conductivity of the NGO, the composites exhibit better electrostatic discharge safety. Therefore, the NGO additives can be potentially used as a control medium, which can tune the exotherm, ignition, pressurization, combustion performance, and Electrostatic discharge (ESD) safety of nanothermites, and thus may be capable of facilitating the practical applications of nanothermites.