Aluminum-based fuel in energetic formulations has favorable ignition and combustion characteristics, but it is also prone to an explosion. To ensure safe production and prevent accident, explosion characteristics and the mechanism of aluminum-reduced graphene oxide (Al-RGO) composite were investigated. Thermal analysis showed that after adding RGO, the activation energy of Al dust in the initial oxidation stage decreased from 241.5 kJ/mol to 90.0 kJ/mol. With the addition of 5 wt% RGO, PTFE , and Ni inclusions, the minimum explosible concentration increased by 40%, 10%, and 25%, the maximum explosion pressure increased by 20.8%, 13.8%, and 7.5%, respectively. Moreover, the addition of RGO could significantly improve the flame propagation speed and oxidation efficiency of aluminum but with a slight effect on the burning time of single Al particles. XPS results revealed that the major explosion product of Al-RGO is Al 2 O 3 . Based on these results, the explosion mechanism of Al-RGO was discussed in-depth.
To improve the thermal properties of aluminum (Al) in the energetic system, a coated structure with ammonium perchlorate (AP) was prepared by a facile approach. And N, N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) was chosen as an ideal solvent based on heterogeneous nucleation theory and molecular dynamics simulation. This coated structure could enlarge the contact area and improve the reaction environment to enhance the thermal properties. The addition of AP could accelerate oxidation temperature of Al with around 17.5 °C. And the heat release of 85@15 composition rises to 26.13 kJ/g and the reaction degree is 97.6% with higher peak pressure (254.6 kPa) and rise rate (1.397 MPa/s). An ideal ratio with 15 wt% AP was probed primarily. The high energy laser-induced shockwave experiment was utilized to simulate the reaction behavior in hot field. And the larger activated mixture of coated powder could release more energy to promote the growth of shockwave with higher speed up to 518.7 ± 55.9 m/s. In conclusion, 85@15 composition is expected to be applied in energetic system as a novel metal fuel.