DefinePK

Abstract

Oxidation and nitridation of nano aluminum particles (NAPs) were studied experimentally by using simultaneous thermal analysis (STA) which is combination of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in the atmosphere of air and nitrogen at one atmospheric pressure conditions. It was observed that in air the oxidation process of NAPs completed in three steps whereas in the nitrogen it was a two stepped reaction. In air the major oxidation step was observed before melting of the particles while in nitrogen it occurred after that. The particles were ignited in air whereas no such rapid reaction was seen in nitrogen. It was also observed that the heat produced during the chemical reaction in air was three times the heat produced in nitrogen atmosphere. Detailed characterisation of nano aluminum particles (NAPs) before and after the experiments was done with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Nanosizer (DLS), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD).