Effect of metal oxide nanostructures on the explosive property of metastable intermolecular composite particles

The fineness of reactants, degree of intermixing and interfacial contact area between fuel and oxidizer comprising of metastable intermolecular composite (MIC) particles are important factors to determine their overall kinetics of burning process. Here, we demonstrate a viable method for enhancing the explosive property of MICs by tailoring the nanostructures of oxidizer located in close proximity to fuel nanoparticles. The measured pressurization rate for a specific sample of solid Al nanoparticle (fuel)-porous CuO nanowire (oxidizer) MICs exploded in a closed vessel was found to be increased by a factor of ~ 10 compared with that for solid Al nanoparticle-solid CuO nanoparticle MICs. In addition, with the assistance of intensive sonication energy, the fabricated porous oxidizer nanowires were disintegrated into oxidizer nanoparticles, which considerably reduced the pressurization rate when they were ignited with fuel nanoparticles. This suggests that the morphology of oxidizer nanostructures from solid nanoparticles (i.e. 0-D) to porous nanowires (i.e. 1-D) play a key role in significantly changing the interfacial contact area with fuel nanoparticles so that nascent oxygen can be produced effectively for promoting the explosive property of the fuel nanoparticles.