The research team published their findings in the October edition of ACS Nano with collaboration from the RDECOM Research Laboratory, the Army's corporate research laboratory (ARL), Stanford University, University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Argonne National Laboratory.

This new published work signals a beginning at ARL for the development of functionalized particles as novel energetics under several new leveraged programs led by Drs. Chi-Chin Wu and Jennifer Gottfried. ARL is leading joint scientific efforts with the University of Tennessee, Texas Tech University, Army Research, Development and Engineering Center at Picatinny, N.J., and with the Air Force Research Laboratory establishing a new research avenue to develop superior novel metal propellant/explosive ingredients to protect more lives for the Army warfighters.

"Because aluminum (Al) can theoretically release a large quantity of heat (as much as 31 kilojoules per gram) and is relatively cheap due to its natural abundance, µAlpowders have been widely used in energetic applications," said Wu. However, they are very difficult to be ignited by an optical flash lamp due to poor light absorption. To improve the light absorption of ?Al during ignition, it is often mixed with heavy metallic oxides which decrease the energetic performance," Wu said.

Nanometer-sized Al powders (i.e., one billionth of a meter in diameter) can be ignited more easily by a wide-area optical flash lamp to release heat at a much faster rate than can be achieved using conventional single-point methods such as hotwire ignition. Unfortunately, nanometer-sized Al powders are very costly.

The team demonstrated the value of µAl/GO composites as potential propellant/explosive ingredients through a collaborative research effort led by Professor Xiaolin Zheng at Stanford University and supported by ARL's Dr. Chi-Chin Wu and Dr. Jennifer Gottfried. This research demonstrated that GO can enable the efficient ignition of µAl via an optical flash lamp, releasing more energy at a faster rate -- thus significantly improving the energetic performance of µAl beyond that of the more expensive nanometer-sized Al powder. The team also discovered that the ignition and combustion of µAl powders can be controlled by varying the GO content to achieve the desired energy output.