Study on high-density liquid fuel containing energetic nanoparticles

Energetic particles have been used in solid propellant to improve the energy, but adding such particles in liquid fuel is still challenging due to the precipitation of heavy particles.The possibilities of modifying the surface of boron nanoparticles (NPs) and adding them into high density fuel HD-03 as energetic additives are explored.Trioctylphosphine oxide is used as surface ligand.The effects of dispersion stability, density, energy and viscosity of the NPs-containing fuel are investigated.It is found that the surface modification can inhibit the contact and agglomeration of NPs and make them disperse in liquid fuel like HD-03 stably.The density and volumetric energy of the fuel increase significantly.It can flow freely like pure liquid fuel and has relatively low viscosity at room temperature.By adding 10wt% and 60wt% of NPs, the density are 1.12 g/mL and 1.33 g/mL, the volumetric energy are 49.7 MJ/L and 69.8 MJ/L, and the viscosity are 33 mPa·s and 87 mPa·s, respectively.