Optical ignition of nanoenergetic materials: The role of single-walled carbon nanotubes as potential optical igniters

We demonstrate the effective optical ignition of nanoenergetic materials (nEMs) by adding single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as an optical ignition agent into an nEM matrix composed of Al/CuO nanoparticles (NPs). The measured burn rate and pressurization rate of SWCNT (optical igniter)-Al NP (fuel)-CuO NP (oxidizer) composites were found to attain maximum values of ∼240 m/s and ∼5.9 ± 0.8 psi/μs, respectively, in the case of SWCNT (1 wt.%)-nEM composites. As the amount of SWCNTs added into the nEM matrix was further increased (i.e., SWCNT > 2 wt.%), both the burn rate and the pressurization rate of the as-prepared SWCNT-nEM composites decreased significantly. This was because the large amount of SWCNTs in the nEM matrix increased the heat dissipation through the SWCNT agglomerates, so that the temperature increase in the SWCNT-nEM composite was limited, thus hindering the oxidation and subsequent ignition of the nEMs. This suggests that the remote optical ignition and controlled-explosion reactivity of nEMs can be performed by incorporating SWCNTs as a potential optical ignition agent with nEMs.