Interaction mechanism between metal hydrides and energetic compounds: an extensive literature survey

Abstract

The existing results show that the combustion heat, energy level and some other performance indices of system could be improved effectively, while opportune percentages of metal hydrides (MHs) are added in solid propellants or explosives. Despite huge potentials exist for the addition of MHs in energetic materials (EMs), some practical difficulties hinder the widespread application of them. For example, the compatibility between metal hydrides materials and other components in EMs is one of the key concerns. The synergy of energy release between MHs and EMs will be limited if the interaction mechanism between them are not clear. Combustion, thermal and microscopic interaction between MHs and EMs were summarized in this paper. From our point of view, laser ignition is the most effective and convenient method to study the combustion interaction between metal hydrides and energetic compounds, the research on such mechanism should start with quantum chemical computation (QCC) and molecular dynamics simulation (MDS), in which the interaction energy (binding energy, adsorption energy) and radial distribution function (RDF) are identified as key characteristic parameters to estimate the nature of the interaction.