Enhanced combustion and hydrophobic performance of aluminum micro-particles coated with high-energy fluorine-containing materials

Ma Tingting; Xie Junjian; Li Hui; Wei Kaixin; Xu Zhibin; Meng Zihui; E Xiu-tian-feng

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Enhanced combustion and hydrophobic performance of aluminum micro-particles coated with high-energy fluorine-containing materials

Updated：2026-05-14

- Enhanced combustion and hydrophobic performance of aluminum micro-particles coated with high-energy fluorine-containing materials
- Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol. 90, Issue 2, Pages: 361-371(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
  School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China
  Xi'an Modern Chemistry Research Institute, Xi'an 710065, China
- Author bio：
  
  These authors contributed equally to this work.
  Corresponding author. E-mail address: xtf_e@bit.edu.cn (X.-t.-f. E).
- Funds：
- DOI：
  CLC：
- Received：15 June 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-08-22，
  
  Accepted：16 September 2025，
  
  Online First：05 December 2025，
  
  Published：2026-02
- Accepted：
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Ma Tingting, Xie Junjian, Li Hui, et al. Enhanced combustion and hydrophobic performance of aluminum micro-particles coated with high-energy fluorine-containing materials[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2026, 90(2): 361-371.
DOI：

Ma Tingting, Xie Junjian, Li Hui, et al. Enhanced combustion and hydrophobic performance of aluminum micro-particles coated with high-energy fluorine-containing materials[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2026, 90(2): 361-371. DOI：

摘要

Abstract

Fluorine-containing compounds have proven to be effective coating materials for enhancing the combustion efficiency of aluminum micro-particles (Al MPs). However

these compounds are usually lowenergy polymeric materials

which may inevitably diminish the overall energy density of propellants or explosives. This study introduces a two-step coating strategy using fluorinated energetic smallmolecule 2-NCF to coat Al MPs

employing FeCl

as an intermediate layer. Compared to pristine Al MPs

2-NCF coated Al MPs can reduce the ignition delay from 36 ms to 3 ms and shorten the time to maximum flame area from 551 ms to 114 ms

accompanied by intensified sparking combustion. Thermal analyses demonstrate that the energetic 2-NCF induces localized micro-explosions to disrupt the alumina shell

and the fluorinated segments produced by 2-NCF react with the aluminum

followed by β-AlF

to α-AlF

phase evolution

which sustains oxygen penetration for complete aluminum core oxidation to release more energy. The 2-NCF coating concurrently enhances hydrophobicity of Al MPs

elevating contact angles from 0° to 120°. This coating can effectively block water penetration and prevent hydrolysis of the inner aluminum during long storage. This work demonstrates the potential of 2-NCF as an excellent high-energetic coating material to enhance the combustion and hydrophobic performance of aluminum powder.

关键词

Keywords

references

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