Micro-nanoarchitectonic of aluminum-hydrogel propellant with static stability and dynamic rheology

  • Huiyan Guo ,
  • Huaiyu Li ,
  • Hongzhi Zhang ,
  • Lun Pan ,
  • Chengxiang Shi ,
  • Kang Xue ,
  • Xiangwen Zhang ,
  • Ji-Jun Zou
Expand
  • Key Laboratory for Advanced Fuel and Propellant of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
xuekang@tju.edu.cn
jj_zou@tju.edu.cn

Received date: 30 Oct 2023

Accepted date: 23 Dec 2023

Copyright

2024 Higher Education Press

Abstract

The aluminum-water system is a promising propellant due to high energy and low signal characteristics, and the gel form is easier to store and utilize. In this work, hydrogels of water and aluminum particles were prepared using the low-molecular-weight gellant agarose. The various physical properties of gel systems, including the water loss rate, phase transition temperature, and centrifugal stability at different gellant and aluminum contents, were examined. Rheological properties were assessed through shear thinning tests, thixotropy tests, strain sweep analysis, and frequency sweep experiments. The microstructure of the gel was obtained through scanning electron microscopy images. The results show that the aluminum-hydrogel network structure is composed of micron-scale aluminum and agarose nanosheets, and the unique micro-nanostructure endows the gel with excellent mechanical strength and thermal stability, which improve with increasing gellant and aluminum contents. Notably, the gel with 2% agarose and 20% aluminum had the best performance; the storage modulus reached 90647 Pa, which was within the linear viscoelastic region, and the maximum withstand pressure was 111.2 kPa, which was 118.8% greater than that of the pure hydrogel. Additionally, the gel demonstrates remarkable shear thinning behavior and can undergo gel-sol transformation upon shearing or heating to exceeding 114 °C.

Cite this article

Huiyan Guo , Huaiyu Li , Hongzhi Zhang , Lun Pan , Chengxiang Shi , Kang Xue , Xiangwen Zhang , Ji-Jun Zou . Micro-nanoarchitectonic of aluminum-hydrogel propellant with static stability and dynamic rheology[J]. Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering, 2024 , 18(4) : 43 . DOI: 10.1007/s11705-024-2404-6

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Haihe Laboratory of Sustainable Chemical Transformations.
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