High temperature and pressure regime soot: Physical, optical and chemical signatures from high explosive detonations

Detonation Soot: A New Class of Ice Nucleating Particle

“…Consistently, the metal with the highest measured concentration is copper, supporting our Raman analysis (Aiken et al., 2022). Other metals detected within the detonation soot samples are components of the detonators and stainless steel chamber, including zinc, iron, chromium, aluminum, lead, nickel, and titanium (Aiken et al., 2022). Additionally, trace amounts of tin and cobalt were detected in the samples (Aiken et al., 2022).…”

“…Detailed metal analysis of detonation soot, produced identically to the samples analyzed here, by inductively coupled plasma‐optical emission spectroscopy and high energy diffraction microscopy is described in our previous manuscripts, Aiken et al. (2022) and Huber et al. (2018), respectively.…”

“…Other metals detected within the detonation soot samples are components of the detonators and stainless steel chamber, including zinc, iron, chromium, aluminum, lead, nickel, and titanium (Aiken et al., 2022). Additionally, trace amounts of tin and cobalt were detected in the samples (Aiken et al., 2022). While all the observed metals (and the associated metal oxides) are potential candidates to explain the warm ice active sites, lead and titanium oxides possess the strongest likelihood due to their presence in both the Raman analysis conducted here and the detailed metal analysis by our collaborators.…”

“…Detonation soot was collected during controlled detonations of high explosives at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Specifically, the samples in this study are carbon‐based particles formed through detonations of explosive materials under temperatures and pressures that are generally unobtainable in laboratory settings (Aiken et al., 2022; Huber et al., 2018). Previous analysis of these specific high explosives, PBX 9502 and Composition B‐3, at Los Alamos National Laboratory indicated that under such conditions unique carbon allotropes form (Huber et al., 2018), which have different physical, optical, and likely microphysical properties than soot produced under less extreme conditions (Aiken et al., 2022).…”

“…However, the soot produced during the detonation includes both combustion soot and the less‐studied detonation soot known to have a unique morphology (Kashkarov et al., 2016; Pantea et al., 2006). High explosives produce intense reactions reaching higher temperatures (∼2500–3000 K) and pressures (∼25–35 GPa) compared to those occurring in regular combustion, ∼0–3000 K and ∼1.01 × 10 −4 GPa, respectively (Aiken et al., 2022). Therefore, detonation soot is known to be composed of nanodiamond in addition to standard graphite found in combustion soot (Greiner et al., 1988; Viecelli & Ree, 2000).…”