Joining and welding with a nanothermite and exothermic bonding using reactive multi-nanolayers – A review

Pioneering insights into the superior performance of titanium as a fuel in energetic materials

“…Nanothermites refer to as thermites with reactants (fuel and oxidizers) size below 500 nm. As energy-generating materials, nanothermites find applications in material synthesis [1,2], low gas emission heat sources for welding and joining [3][4][5][6], initiation [7][8][9], and also on chip actuations [10][11][12][13]. Al fuel is by far the most employed metallic fuel because of its high oxidation enthalpy and low cost, despite the negative impact of the native alumina (Al2O3) coated on aluminum which penalizes the ignitability.…”

Initial stage of titanium oxidation in Ti/CuO thermites: a molecular dynamics study using ReaxFF forcefields

“…When ignited, thermite generate an on-demand burst of energy in the form of heat and/or pressure, from which a selection of gaseous species may be utilized. Generally, they are explored to cut 11,12 , propel 13,14 , disassemble 15,16 , weld 17 , initiate [18][19][20] , release 21 , which actions may be operated under different environments, even in vacuum 22 , underwater 23 and in extreme environments 24 , for both civilian and military applications. To date, Aluminum (Al) is by far the most common fuel used in thermites because of its high oxidation enthalpy, availability and low cost 25 .…”

Comprehending the influence of the particle size and stoichiometry on Al/CuO thermite combustion in close bomb: A theoretical study

“…These additional factors include powder density, the thickness of the natural oxide layer that chemically passivates the particles, the stoichiometry (metal oxide over metal ratio) [3][4][5][6][7][8]. This tunability makes thermites promising in replacement of CHNO energetics for a large variety of applications such as propulsion [9], in-situ welding [10,11], material synthesis [12][13], generation of biocidal-agents [14,15], initiations [16][17][18], actuations in microsystems [19][20][21][22] and chips self-destruction [23][24][25]. Currently only general correlations between microscopic (particles size, stoichiometry …) and mesoscopic properties (powder compaction) of the thermite and its combustion behavior do exist, mostly derived from three decades of experimentations on thermite systems in research laboratories [26][27][28].…”