Energetic Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials for Future Defense Applications

The integration of nanostructured materials in defense systems is expected to improve their performance in terms of power, safety, and reliability. That is why considerable research effort has been undertaken by major military powers worldwide in this domain. The first important step was to develop the production capacities of organic explosives in the state of fine powders with submicron to nanosized particle size distributions. The Spray Flash Evaporation (SFE) process, which is a unique method for producing such materials, was developed at industrial scale. Explosive nanopowders obtained by this process were subsequently mixed with nanosized pyrotechnic compositions such as nanothermites, to prepare hybrid detonating materials able to replace lead-based primary explosives. Composite propellants can also be prepared by SFE which allows mixing their components in a single step with better homogeneity. The ultimate challenge is to move from powder to object, in order to integrate energetic nanomaterials in operational systems. Although the research in this last domain is still in its infancy, several ways of preparation of objects from nanothermites have been recently reported in scientific literature. The focus will be on two examples studied in our laboratory. The first one is the preparation of nanothermites in the state of solid, porous foams; the second one is the use of nanothermites for coating grains of propulsive powder to change their combustion properties.