Impact-Induced Reaction Characteristic and the Enhanced Sensitivity of PTFE/Al/Bi(2)O(3) Composites

In this paper, the reaction characteristic of a novel reactive material, which introduced bismuth trioxide (Bi(2)O(3)) into traditional polytetrafluoroethylene/aluminum (PTFE/Al), is studied. The effect of Bi(2)O(3) with different content and particle size on the reaction behaviors of PTFE/Al/Bi(2)O(3) are investigated by drop-weight test and X-ray diffractometer (XRD), including impact sensitivity, energy release performance under a certain impact, and reaction mechanism. The experimental results show that the content of Bi(2)O(3) increased from 0% to 35.616%, the characteristic drop height of impact sensitivity (H(50)) of PTFE/Al/Bi(2)O(3) reactive materials decreased first and then increased, and the minimum H(50) of all types of materials in the experiment is 0.74 times that of PTFE/Al, and the particle size of Bi(2)O(3) affects the rate of H(50) change with Bi(2)O(3) content. Besides, with the increase of Bi(2)O(3) content, both the reaction intensity and duration first increase and then decrease, and there is optimum content of Bi(2)O(3) maximizing the reaction degree of the PTFE/Al/Bi(2)O(3). Furthermore, a prediction model for the impact sensitivity of PTFE-based reactive material is developed. The main reaction products include AlF(3), xBi(2)O(3)·Al(2)O(3), and Bi.