To explore the effect of the addition of poly(vinylidene fluorine) (PVDF) to a nanothermite system, an Al/MnO₂/PVDF energetic nanocomposite was prepared using an electrospray method, Al/MnO₂ nanothermite was prepared as a control group.

To investigate the effect of the addition of poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) on nanothermites, Al/MoO₃/PVDF energetic nanocomposites were prepared using electrospraying method. As a control group, Al/MoO₃ was also designed. Then, both samples were tested by FE-SEM, XRD and TG-DSC. TG-DSC results showed that the Al/MoO₃/PVDF energetic nanocomposites released more than 934.0 J g⁻¹ with two obvious exothermic peaks. Compared with the control group of 800.7 J g⁻¹ heat, it changed the thermal performance to some extent. There were Mo₂C among the residues products after the reaction via XRD. The activation energy (Ea) was analyzed using the Kissinger method under different heating rates by DSC. The addition of PVDF reduced the Ea of the thermites. To explore the combustion performance, a preliminary experiment was designed. The Al/MoO₃/PVDF energetic nanocomposites were easier to ignite and the burning was more durable, which was significant in solid propulsion and applications requiring extended combustion time.

Micron‐MnO₂ powder has unique thermal decomposition process compared with other metal oxides, and the different characteristics of components in thermite could affect the thermal performance of the whole system directly. In this work, the Al powder with different three particle sizes was combined with micron‐MnO₂ to prepare the Al‐MnO₂ thermite system, and the effect of Al powder particle sizes on the whole thermal behavior was studied. Firstly, the thermal decomposition process of micron‐MnO₂ and purity of Al powder are tested by TG‐DSC. By using ultrasonic dispersion method, the fuel‐rich thermite samples were prepared and characterized by SEM and TG‐DSC at different heating rates. The Kissinger method was also employed to calculate the activation energy for the first exothermic peak. It was found that the thermal decomposition process of MnO₂ in the thermite system can be significantly disturbed by different Al particles size. In other words, the effect of Al particle sizes on the thermite can be magnified due to the unique decomposition properties of micron‐MnO₂ instead of onset temperature of exothermic reaction changing simply. The activation energy of thermite system decreased with the reduction of Al particle sizes in micron‐level, while in nanolevel the activation energy markedly increased. Finally, the possible reasons for phenomenon were discussed.

To explore the effect of potassium perchlorate (KClO ₄ ) on Al nanoparticles/MnO ₂ -nanorods nanothermite systems, in this paper, Al/MnO ₂ nanothermites with different mass fraction of KClO ₄ were prepared by electrospray.