Promising fuels for energetics: Spherical Al-Li powders with high reactivity via incorporation of Li

To improve the heat release and reactivity of Al, Li was incorporated into Al via the centrifugal atomization in this study for obtaining Al-Li alloy powders. The microstructure and composition of the samples were characterized by SEM, XRD, and ICP. The oxidation kinetics were evaluated via TG/DSC, and the energetic performance of the Al-Li/KP composites was tested. The results show that spherical Al-Li alloy powders with the well-distributed dendritic structure are obtained that are mainly composed of αAl and Al-Li compounds. The oxidization rate of Al-Li alloy powders is higher than pure Al, owing to the decreasing activation energy caused by the catalysis of the soluble Li in Al and Al-Li compounds. The shorter ignition delay and higher reaction rate of Al-Li/KP with increasing Li content in Al-Li alloy powders is a result of the microexplosion of Al-Li. Therefore, Al-Li alloy powders with high reactivity are promising fuels for energetic materials.