High Performance Fuel Based on Nanoparticulate Hydrocarbon Hybrids
DOD-Navy Phase I Contract No. N00014-04-M-0188
This SBIR Phase I addressed the development of hybrid hydrocarbon/metal nanoparticles fuels. These fuels were anticipated to be more energetic than hydrocarbons alone and to reduce the size of key power plant components. A problem that was addressed during Phase I was the inertness of the protective metal oxide films present on metal nanoparticles. Doping of these metal oxide films by mechanochemical milling and impregnation strategies were evaluated as approaches for achieving this objective. Work reported here resulted in the identification of hybrid fuel gel compositions based on doped metal nanoparticles that displayed enhancement of volumetric energy density and initial combustion rate relative to undoped metal nanoparticle based fuels.