Carbon nanotubes initiate the explosion of porous silicon

Christopher Malec, Nicolas Voelcker, Joseph Shapter, Amanda Ellis

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    22 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Here we show that a mixture of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and ferrocene doped with sodium perchlorate, as an oxidant, can be combusted using a camera flash as an initiator. We optimize the MWCNT to oxidant ratio by monitoring the intensity and spectral characteristics of the light emission. In addition, we construct a novel nanostructured energetic material combining MWCNTs with porous silicon (pSi) impregnated with sodium perchlorate and show that pSi can be exploded using carbon nanotubes as photosensitive initiators.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2517-2519
    Number of pages3
    JournalMaterials Letters
    Volume64
    Issue number22
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 30 Nov 2010

    Keywords

    • Carbon nanotubes
    • Explosives
    • Ferrocene
    • Photo-acoustic
    • Porous silicon

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