Enhancing the combustion and propulsion performance of Al/CuO via introducing AlH3 as fuel substitute

The research on nanothermites mainly focuses on formulation and structural modification, performance optimization and application research. Whereas, the few gaseous products of nanothermites limit the practical applications, especially in microthrusters. Here, various contents of AlH3 was introduced in typical nanothermites (Al/CuO) to replace Al as fuel. The characteristics of Al/AlH3/CuO were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The ignition and combustion performance such as burning rate, unconstrained combustion, ignition temperature and delay time, pressurization and propulsion properties was investigated. Results revealed that when AlH3 content was 20%, Al/AlH3/CuO had the fastest burning rate (189 m/s), the lowest ignition temperature (441.4 °C), the shortest ignition delay time (5.32 ms), the maximum Pmax (1141.3 kPa), the highest pressurization rate (75.06 kPa/μs) and the maximum microthrust (1.61 N). In short, replacing Al with AlH3 in the Al/CuO provides an innovation for creating nanothermites with completely new metal fuels, and also enhances the combustion and propulsion performance.