Thermal behavior and combustion of Al nanoparticles/ MnO2-nanorods nanothermites with addition of potassium perchlorate

Abstract

To explore the effect of potassium perchlorate (KClO₄) on Al nanoparticles/MnO₂-nanorods nanothermite systems, in this paper, Al/MnO₂ nanothermites with different mass fraction of KClO₄ were prepared by electrospray. The samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, TG-DSC analysis. According to the results of TG-DSC, the addition of KClO₄ seemed to cause no direct improvement on their exothermic reactions. But the results of activation energy calculations showed that KClO₄ could remarkably reduce the activation energy of nanothermite systems by up to 48.8%. The XRD results indicated that residues consisted mainly of Mn₃O₄. The reasons why KClO₄ has little effect on thermal properties but makes a great difference on kinetics were analyzed and discussed. Finally, onset combustion tests were carried out. The results and findings provide a useful approach to decrease the activation energy and combustion rate of nanothermites, which may facilitate practical and combustible applications.