Study on exothermic effect of surface modified porous aluminum

Abstract

Aluminum powder is widely used in the field of energy materials due to its high energy density. However, the combustion of aluminum powder is limited by the dense oxide film on the surface. In this study, surface modified porous aluminum (TFA@Al) was prepared by a simple chemical method. The morphology and structure of the TFA@Al surface were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The thermal oxidation and thermal nitridation processes of TFA@Al were analyzed by thermal analyzer (TG-DSC). The results show that the etched holes on the surface of TFA@Al can effectively promote the oxidation of aluminum and improve the exothermic effect of aluminum. The coupling reaction mechanism between Al core and oxygen at the etched holes is proposed. The explosion heat and combustion of thermite composed of TFA@Al and CuO (TFA@Al/CuO) and thermite composed of Al and CuO (Al/CuO) were also studied. The results show that TFA@Al/CuO has higher explosion heat value and emission spectral intensity than Al/CuO. Surface modified porous aluminum is expected to be used in the field of aluminum-containing energy materials.