Surface Fluorinated Metastable Aluminum Microspheres: Improved Ignition and Anti-Aging Properties of Aluminum Powder

Abstract

ABSTRACT Incorporating fluorine-containing organic compounds onto the surface of aluminum powder in order to reduce the mass transfer distance and increase the heat transfer efficiency during the combustion of aluminum powder and fluoride is a difficult problem to solve due to the fact that aluminum powder contains almost no chemical functional groups. Herein, monodisperse Al@PVDF microspheres were prepared by a simple dry-spray method by directly combining Al powder and PVDF. The contents of PVDF and Al in Al@PVDF microspheres can be adjusted arbitrarily. PVDF can be tightly and uniformly bound on the surface of aluminum particles by characterization of Al@PVDF microspheres. Al@PVDF microspheres can improve the hydrophobic properties of aluminum powder and effectively inhibit the corrosion of water and strong alkaline solutions on aluminum. Al@PVDF microspheres exhibit greater hydrophobicity than aluminum powder and are capable of efficiently inhibiting the corrosion of aluminum by water and strong alkaline solutions. Additionally, the ignition and reaction performance of Al@PVDF microspheres under high temperature conditions are also studied in detail. Al@PVDF microspheres exhibit lower ignition temperature and higher reactivity than pure aluminum powder. Al@PVDF microspheres can also effectively suppress the combustion agglomeration of aluminum powders.