Systems and methods for synthesis and production of energetic particles

Abstract

A method of synthesis of energetic particles, and associated systems, the method including providing a metal powder, dispersing the metal powder in a first fluid to form a first suspension, contacting the first suspension with an oxide precursor, aqueous ammonium hydroxide and a second fluid, to produce a first product, collecting product solids and inductively heating product solids to produce energetic core-shell particles.

1 . A system for the synthesis of energetic core-shell particles, the system comprising:
 a chamber for conducting particle synthesis reactions;   an oxide source coupled to the chamber, for supplying the chamber with an oxide precursor;   a metal source coupled to the chamber, for supplying the chamber with a metal;   a nozzle, coupled to the chamber, for outputting synthesized energetic core-shell particles from the chamber; and   an inductive heating source, coupled to the chamber, for inductively heating chamber contents to synthesize energetic core-shell particles.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , the system further comprising an auxiliary material source, coupled to the chamber, for supplying the chamber with auxiliary materials. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein auxiliary materials for supply to the chamber comprise a fluid. 
     
     
         4 . The system of any one of  claims 1 to 3 , the system further comprising a capture storage system coupled to the nozzle, and configured to receive energetic core-shell particles from the nozzle, the capture storage system further configured to package energetic core-shell particles into a storage container. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the capture storage system comprises an inductive heating element, for heating stored energetic core-shell particles. 
     
     
         6 . The system of any one of  claims 1 to 5 , the system further comprising an electromagnetic suspension subsystem, the electromagnetic suspension subsystem configured to suspend energetic core-shell particles outputted by the nozzle. 
     
     
         7 . The system of any one of  claims 1 to 6 , the system further comprising a gel packaging subsystem coupled to the nozzle, the gel packaging subsystem configured to receive core shell particles from the nozzle, and encapsulate core shell particles into a gel capsule. 
     
     
         8 . The system of any one of  claims 1 to 7 , wherein the nozzle comprises multiple sub-nozzles. 
     
     
         9 . The system of any one of  claims 1 to 8 , the system further comprising an electromagnetic transmitter, for exposing contents of the chamber to electromagnetic radiation. 
     
     
         10 . The system of any one of  claims 1 to 8 , the system further comprising an electromagnetic transmitter, for exposing energetic core-shell particles to electromagnetic radiation. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 9 or 10 , the system further comprising an electromagnetic receiver, for receiving electromagnetic radiation emitted by the electromagnetic transmitter, to recover energy. 
     
     
         12 . The system of any one of  claims 1 to 11 , the system further comprising a control system configured to adjust operation parameters of the system. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the control system is configured to apply a trained machine learning model to adjust operation parameters of the system. 
     
     
         14 . A method of synthesis of energetic particles, the method comprising:
 providing a metal powder;   dispersing the metal powder in a first fluid to form a first suspension;   contacting the first suspension with an oxide precursor, aqueous ammonium hydroxide and a second alcohol, to produce a first product;   collecting product solids; and   inductively heating product solids to produce energetic core-shell particles.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising stirring the first product for a first period of time. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 or 15 , further comprising gridding product solids before inductively heating product solids. 
     
     
         17 . The method of any one of  claims 14 to 16 , further comprising processing product solids through a mesh sieve before inductively heating product solids. 
     
     
         18 . The method of any one of  claims 14 to 17 , wherein the metal powder is aluminum powder. 
     
     
         19 . The method of any one of  claims 14 to 18 , wherein the oxide precursor is cupric nitrate. 
     
     
         20 . The method of any one of  claims 14 to 19 , wherein the first fluid is an alcohol. 
     
     
         21 . The method of any one of  claims 14 to 20 , wherein the second fluid is an alcohol. 
     
     
         22 . The method of any one of  claims 14 to 21 , wherein the product solids are inductively heated to 250 C. 
     
     
         23 . The method of any one of  claims 14 to 22 , wherein the metal powder comprises a mean particle size of 1 micron. 
     
     
         24 . The method of any one of  claims 14 to 22 , wherein the metal powder comprises a mean particle size of 40 nanometers. 
     
     
         25 . The method of any one of  claims 14 to 24 , wherein product solids are collected through filtration. 
     
     
         26 . The method of any one of  claims 14 to 25 , wherein the metal powder is iron powder. 
     
     
         27 . The method of any one of  claims 14 to 26 , wherein the ratio of metal power to oxide precursor is configured such that the method produces energetic core-shell particles with a specific equivalence ratio, such that when the energetic core-shell particles are combusted, the combustion comprises a predetermined ignition delay. 
     
     
         28 . The method of any one of  claims 14 to 27 , wherein inductively heating product solids to produce energetic core-shell particles comprises improving energetic core-shell particles.