Engineered Metastable Intermolecular Composites: Thermodynamics of Nanoparticles and Heterogeneous Combustion

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Metastable intermolecular composite (MIC) is a reactive composite demonstrating appealing characteristics like a high thermo-chemical sensitivity, low-energy requirement for ignition, flexible architecture, and tunable reactivity. MICs are widely investigated for both civil and defence applications, specifically as sources of power, heat, and propulsion. At the University of Waterloo, we have developed a variety of MIC formulae and architectures and studied for their ignition, energetic, and combustion characteristics, aiming to develop a miniature heating strategy to achieve pre-ignition of conventional explosives and propellants, sufficient heat supply for micro-scale component joining, and localized energy production at micro-electro-mechanical systems. Yet, only a surface understanding of MIC combustion kinetics exists; to date, underlying processes and detailed mechanisms remain only partially understood, owing to the physical and chemical complexities of heterogeneous MIC constituents and influences of their various length scales. The result is, a detailed and accurate numerical model for predicting MIC combustion and flame propagation is not available, which has significantly hindered the further development of MICs and their applications.     The long-term goals of the proposed research are to achieve artificial design of MICs for different applications and accurate control of their combustion dynamics, and to create new knowledge on dependence of MIC physicochemical and combustion properties on the type, size and stability of constituents. The proposed research will target three specific objectives in the next five years: i) developing a procedure to investigate the thermodynamics of nanoparticles (i.e., the nano-sized constituents of MICs) through theoretical modeling and experimental validation; ii) investigating and characterizing the propagation of chemical reactions within representative MIC microstructures using computer modeling; and iii) using high-speed imaging, equipped with non-intrusive temperature measurement, to visualize the flame propagation, which reveals combustion dynamics of MICs and helps develop various applications such as micro-joining and power-on-a-chip.     The proposed theoretical models and fundamental studies will enhance Canada's capacity to develop next-generation engineered MICs. The outcome of this research is expected to guide further fabrications of MIC based devices for novel applications in the micro-electro-mechanical systems, additive manufacturing, explosive detection, biomedical engineering, and defence industry. It will create a unique training opportunity for eight HQP as future engineers and researchers in industry and academia. It will help build university-industry collaborations to commercialize the MIC fabrication technologies and help grow the manufacturing scale and market of MICs in Canada.