Nanoaluminum for Solid Rocket Propulsion: Illusions and Reality

In a lecture at the California Institute of Technology, on 29 December 1959, Richard P. Feynman drew the attention to the “bottom scale”. That year, studies of nanosized metal (nMe) particles had started for the initiation of nuclear reactions in USA and for material science in the then-USSR. Nanosized energetic ingredients were first prepared at the Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Moscow, when Gen et al. produced nMe particles by vaporization and consequent condensation of metal vapors in argon. In rocket propulsion, because of its high combustion enthalpy and easy availability, Al is widely used to improve performance mainly of composite AP/HTPB formulations, the workhorse of space launcher solid motors.