Tuning the reactivity of Al/Fe2O3 nanoenergetic materials via an approach combining soft template self-assembly with sol–gel process process

A bottom-up approach combining soft template self-assembly with sol–gel process, was adopted to prepare the assembled Al/Fe 2 O 3 nanoenergetic materials, assembly-Al/Fe 2 O 3 sample. The other two unassembled Al/Fe 2 O 3 a nanoenergetic materials, sol–gel–Al/Fe 2 O 3 sample and mixing-Al/Fe 2 O 3 sample, were prepared by sol–gel method and physical mixing method respectively. The assembly process within the preparation of the assembly-Al/Fe 2 O 3 sample was analyzed through the changes in the average hydrodynamic diameters of the particles and the micelles in solution. SEM, EDS and TEM tests were performed to demonstrate a significant improvement regarding to dispersity and arrangements of the Al and Fe 2 O 3 particles in the assembled samples, compared to that of the unassembled Al/Fe 2 O 3 samples. DSC test was employed to characterize the reactivity of the samples. The heat release of the assembled Al/Fe 2 O 3 sample was 2088   J/g, about 400 and 990   J/g more than that of the sol–gel–Al/Fe 2 O 3 sample and mixing-Al/Fe 2 O 3 sample, respectively.