SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATIONS OF OXIDIZERS FOR BIOCIDAL NANOENERGETIC APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Nanoenergetic materials have been shown to have reactive properties superior to traditional energetic materials since the nanoscale enables more intimate mixing of fuel and oxidizer to reduce the heat and mass transport limitations. The growing threat of biological weapons has prompted research efforts into new energetic materials with biocidal capabilities. Most notably the biocidal nanothermite involves the aluminum fuel with a strong oxidizer, which releases the biocide. In this thesis two kinds of attempted synthesis and characterizations were covered for this biocidal nanoenergetic topic: (1) the highly hygroscopic strong oxidizer I2O5 was successfully passivated into the Fe2O3 shell, which exhibited excellent combustion performance with biocidal capabilities when formulated into aluminum based nanothermite reaction; (2) the copper iodate and iron iodate particles were prepared by co-precipitation and demonstrated to be good candidates for the potential biocidal energetic applications.