2D-WO3/nAl Nanoenergetic Materials: Preparation and Energetic Properties

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are a hot research topic owing to their excellent topological and chemical properties. Graphene, the most popular 2D material, has been employed in energetic materials (EM) and it exhibits excellent energetic performance, such as catalyzing combustion and decomposition of ammonium perchlorate, desensitizing HMX and CL20 owing to its large specific surface area (excellent for absorption and intimacy with other components), and electrical and thermal conductivity (facilitating electrostatic and thermal dissipation, and thus desensitization). However, thus far, utilizing metal oxide-based 2D materials in the field of EM has been extremely rare, particularly 2D-WO3. 2D-WO3/nano-Al (nAl) nanoenergetic materials (2DnEMs) are reported in this study, for the first time, with the aim of using the large specific surface area and surface defects of 2D materials to improve the intimacy and reactivity between energetic components. In this study, a 2D material (2D-WO3) was prepared and characterized, and 2DnEMs were obtained by ultrasonically mixing 2D-WO3 with nAl powders. The slow heating behavior and combustion properties of 2DnEM were investigated. It was observed that 2DnEM exhibits more reaction heat (1415.9 vs 1209.0 J/g) during the solid-phase reaction, significantly lower initiating temperature (262 vs 451 °C), two orders of magnitude smaller ignition delay (∼0.006 vs ∼0.4 s), and significantly better combustion performance (22.1 vs 8.4 MPa in peak combustion pressure; 24.2 vs 1.2 GPa/s in pressurization) than the regular nano-WO3/ nAl mixture. The results demonstrate that 2D metal oxides can significantly improve the reactivity and performance of EMs.