Energetic Materials Based on Nanoporous Carbon

This work explores a new family of energetic materials produced by filling the porosity of a nanoporous carbon acting as a reducing agent with a solid oxidizing agent. A new pore filling process was developed to efficiently fill the porosity of nanoporous carbons with solid oxidizing agents, allowing selective filling of pores of widths less than 4 nm to be achieved, thus ensuring a homogeneous mixing of the oxidizing and reducing agent at the nanometer scale. The concept is then demonstrated experimentally by proving the ability of nanoporous carbons filled with an oxidizing agent to sustain a detonation and by assessing their fundamental properties as energetic materials. It is demonstrated that a selected material is capable of detonating when initiated by a standard detonator, with measured detonation velocities ranging from 3000 to 4200 m/s for different charge densities and diameters. These properties are impressive for a composite energetic material with a very high fraction of solid decomposition products, indicating very fast dynamic decomposition kinetics favored by the nanometer scale. The concept of a new family of energetic materials based on nanoporous carbons filled with an oxidizing agent is demonstrated in this work, opening new horizons in the path towards efficient, safe and non-toxic energetic nanomaterials with a wide spectrum of applications. The unique properties and versatility of nanoporous carbons, combined with the large number of degrees of freedom of the pore filling process developed in this work, further offer promising perspectives in this field.