Investigation on combustion of porous silicon nanoenergetic chips ignited by single pulse laser

Abstract

The porous silicon (PS) has gained increasing attentions in fields of nanoenergetic materials because of its especial chemical properties and mesoporous structured property (a large specific surface area: ～600m2/g). In this paper, the patterned (PS) films were realized by lithography technique on the polished surface of monocrystal silicon substrates, and the PS nanoenergetic chips (nECs) were created by impregnating the nanoscale pores of PS with ammonium perchlorate under the ultrasonic wave. The combustion of PS nECs was ignited by single pulse laser and the selfsustained burning was recoded by an optical high-speed camera at 20,000 frames per second. Its combustion performance was enhanced by ultrasonic wave in fabrications. Experiment results shown that the radial burning and channel burning were typical stages in combustions of PS nECs. In addition, the igniting energy of pulse laser beams affected the burning properties of PS nECs: the combustion of PS nECs could translate from propellant burning to deflagration with increases of laser beams energy ranged from 0.134mJ to 425mJ. In this work, the diameter of the irradiated spot on the PS nECs was about 700μm.. A strong plume of flame was emitted from the surface of PS nECs and this indicated that the potential for PS nECs to be applied as microigniters matrix chips and microthrusters matrix chips.