Introduction to Nano-energetic Materials

Abstract

With the advent of micro- and nano-scale devices, the energy management at molecular level is vital for performance enhancement. The field of nano-energetics focuses on the study of synthesis and fabrication of energetic materials or composites at nano-level. The nano-energetic materials may include almost all materials associated with the generation and storage of energy in all forms, viz., thermal, electrical, chemical, etc. The advantages of nano-scale are many which include characteristics like overall small particle size, large specific surface area, high surface energy and strong surface activity, and all these properties associated with the nano-scale provide a key to obtain an overall high energy turnover from such materials and composites and provide solutions to some very pressing current technology needs. The primary requirement of nano-energetic materials is to obtain an efficient energy release through combustion and other processes at the nano-scale. This is regulated by tuning the proportion of the oxidizer and fuel in combusting materials during the synthesis stage so that the thermite reaction can be stoichiometrically starved or over bred for different energy releases. These materials after synthesis are then interfaced with micro-/nano-scale electromechanical devices so that they can be put to use for concentrated blast release, pulse power generation, thrust generation, energy conversion and various other applications. These nano-structured energetic materials can be utilized as propellants, explosives and pyrotechnics on the basis of their specific spatial arrangements, enactments, and presentation spaces, etc. The various methods that are deployed to fabricate these energetic materials include wet chemical synthesis, DC reactive magnetron sputtering, electrocatalysis, molecular self-assembly. Since these nano-energetic materials and composites have wide scope in micro-/nano-energetic arena of applications, the corresponding book discusses some of the detailed and novel synthesis, fabrication, characterization, tunability, storage and application aspects of these materials.