Nanomaterials for Super Energetics

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Military Reloads with Nanotech

Smaller. Cheaper. Nastier. Those are the guiding principles behind the military's latest bombs. The secret ingredient: nanotechnology that makes for a bigger boom.

By John Gartner

Nanotechnology is grabbing headlines for its potential in advancing the life sciences and computing research, but the Department of Defense (DoD) found another use: a new class of weaponry that uses energy-packed nanometals to create powerful, compact bombs.

With funding from the U.S. government, Sandia National Laboratories, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are researching how to manipulate the flow of energy within and between molecules, a field known as nanoenergentics, which enables building more lethal weapons such as "cave-buster bombs" that have several times the detonation force of conventional bombs such as the "daisy cutter" or MOAB (mother of all bombs).

Researchers can greatly increase the power of weapons by adding materials known as superthermites that combine nanometals such as nanoaluminum with metal oxides such as iron oxide, according to Steven Son, a project leader in the Explosives Science and Technology group at Los Alamos.

"The advantage (of using nanometals) is in how fast you can get their energy out," Son says. Son says that the chemical reactions of superthermites are faster and therefore release greater amounts of energy more rapidly. "Superthermites can increase the (chemical) reaction time by a thousand times," Son says, resulting in a very rapid reactive wave.
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Although this story is older, any additional material from SP members on this topic would be appreciated.

The rest of the story - http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/14105/
 
http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/05/3d-printing-of-fusing-and-bomb-structure-could-make-bombs-times-lighter-but-still-as-deadly.html

100lbs bomb same as 500lbs bomb today for effectiveness

https://www.defensetech.org/2017/05/19/future-air-force-weapon-baby-moab/?comp=1199477489291&rank=0
 
I guess this would lead to a tendency towards more emphasis on blast then on shrapnel?
 
Older paper on nano-energetics

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/cst/bh_2012_hart.pdf
 
So we can basically have higher impetus compared to HMX.. cool.

Application would be widespread not only for explosives but also propellants as well. We may also see future generation of explosive reactive armor that could use less explosive and use less thicker metal (thus lighter) Or Active protection system small "missile" that capable of neutralizing KEW with less weight of warhead than existing/projected conventional APS.
 
https://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?article=3256

ADELPHI, Md. (July 18, 2018) -- A team of researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and Washington State University have discovered a new type of energetic material that could have triple the energy content of well-known explosives for the Army of 2050 and beyond.

So, how exactly does one begin the process of tripling the energy content of explosives?

Simple components of air, such as nitrogen and carbon monoxide, can be transformed into high-energy polymeric solids when sufficient pressure and/or temperature is applied.

The energy density of one polymeric form of nitrogen is estimated to be three times that of HMX, one of the most powerful explosives used today, making it desirable for use as a new type of environmentally-friendly energetic material.

However, this polymeric form of nitrogen has only been synthesized at a pressure that is one million times higher than standard atmospheric pressure while simultaneously heated to about seven times room temperature, and does not maintain the polymeric form when these extreme conditions are relaxed.

Carbon monoxide gas, on the other hand, while not as potentially energetic, polymerizes at less extreme conditions, and can be recovered for use at room temperature and pressure.
 

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