Engineered Metastable Intermolecular Composites: Thermodynamics of Nanoparticles and Heterogeneous Combustion

亚稳态分子间复合材料(MIC)是一种反应性复合材料，具有高的热化学敏感性、低的点火能耗、灵活的结构和可调的反应性等特点。MIC被广泛研究用于民用和国防应用，特别是作为电力、热量和推进的来源。在滑铁卢大学，我们开发了各种MIC公式和体系结构，并研究了它们的点火、能量和燃烧特性，旨在开发一种微型加热策略，以实现常规炸药和推进剂的预点火，为微型元件连接提供足够的热量，并在微电子机械系统中实现本地化能量生产。然而，对MIC燃烧动力学的了解还只是表面上的；到目前为止，由于非均相MIC组分的物理和化学复杂性及其不同长度尺度的影响，潜在的过程和详细的机理仍然只有部分了解。结果是，目前还没有一个详细、准确的数值模型来预测MIC的燃烧和火焰传播，这严重阻碍了MIC的进一步发展和应用。拟议研究的长期目标是实现针对不同应用的MIC的人工设计和对其燃烧动力学的准确控制，并创造关于MIC的物理化学和燃烧性能对组分的类型、大小和稳定性的依赖关系的新知识。拟议的研究将针对未来五年的三个具体目标：i)开发一种程序，通过理论建模和实验验证来研究纳米粒子(即MIC的纳米级成分)的热力学；ii)使用计算机建模来调查和表征具有代表性的MIC微结构中的化学反应的传播；以及iii)使用配备非侵入性温度测量的高速成像来可视化火焰传播，这将揭示MIC的燃烧动力学，并有助于开发各种应用，如微连接和片上电源。他说，拟议的理论模型和基础研究将增强加拿大开发下一代工程麦克风的能力。这项研究的结果有望指导基于MIC的器件的进一步制造，使其在微电子机械系统、添加剂制造、爆炸物检测、生物医学工程和国防工业中得到新的应用。这将为8名HQP创造一个独特的培训机会，成为未来的工程师和工业界和学术界的研究人员。这将有助于建立大学和行业的合作，将MIC制造技术商业化，并帮助扩大MIC在加拿大的制造规模和市场。

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.