Energetic fluorocarbons have been implemented in order to make energetic materials such as propellants and pyrolant flares since the 1950s. While metal powders are traditionally used as the fuel component in almost all conventional energetic materials, recent efforts have focused on optimizing surface interfaces given new processing practices for generating novel exothermic materials with more power output and decreased reaction times. In this work, polystyrene fibers loaded with an energetic blend of nanoaluminum (n-Al) and perfluoropolyether (PEFE) were successfully fabricated via electrospinning producing a nanothermite energetic composite. Fibers were generated with loadings from 6 up to 25 wt% n-Al/PFPE incorporated into the fiber. The prepared metalized fibers were thermally active upon ignition. Flame propagation velocities of composite fibers were determined by capturing images of burning fibers inside a combustion chamber and results showed sustained propagation on the order of 2 mm/s. Other details of these metalized fiber composites including their fabrication, characterization, and thermal properties will be presented.

Fabrication and characterization of metallized nanofiber composites for energetic applications

247th National Meeting (2014)

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