Promising fuels for energetics: Spherical Al-Li powders with high reactivity via incorporation of Li

Yanli Zhu, Wei Le, Wanjun Zhao*, Xiaohang Ma, Dazhi Liu, Jianxin Li, Qingjie Jiao

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

39 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

To improve the heat release and reactivity of Al, Li was incorporated into Al via the centrifugal atomization in this study for obtaining Al-Li alloy powders. The microstructure and composition of the samples were characterized by SEM, XRD, and ICP. The oxidation kinetics were evaluated via TG/DSC, and the energetic performance of the Al-Li/KP composites was tested. The results show that spherical Al-Li alloy powders with the well-distributed dendritic structure are obtained that are mainly composed of αAl and Al-Li compounds. The oxidization rate of Al-Li alloy powders is higher than pure Al, owing to the decreasing activation energy caused by the catalysis of the soluble Li in Al and Al-Li compounds. The shorter ignition delay and higher reaction rate of Al-Li/KP with increasing Li content in Al-Li alloy powders is a result of the microexplosion of Al-Li. Therefore, Al-Li alloy powders with high reactivity are promising fuels for energetic materials.

Original languageEnglish
Article number124393
JournalFuel
Volume323
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2022

Keywords

  • Centrifugal atomization
  • Energetic application
  • Microexplosion
  • Spherical Al-Li alloy
  • Thermal behavior

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