Heat release behavior of aluminum particles under pure nitrogen atmosphere

Herein, a thermal analysis system and a laser combustion diagnostic system were employed to comparatively investigate the reaction behavior differences of Al particles in N 2 and oxidizing atmospheres. The results show that Al particles have higher mass gain and heat release in N 2 compared to air and carbon dioxide at low heating rates. When the temperature is increased to 1000 °C, the reaction efficiency of Al in nitrogen is as high as 56.68%, much higher than that of 16.02% for air and 17.41% for carbon dioxide. Broken particles and large-sized agglomerates are found in the intermediate nitride products, and the particle surfaces become loose and porous. Combustion test results show that the combustion performance of Al particles in air is better than that in N 2 . Nanoscale smooth spherical alumina particles are found in the condensed combustion products of Al particles under air. Whisker-like aluminum nitride (AlN) is observed under nitrogen.