Propellants Explosives Pyrotechnics, Vol.44, No.10, 1233-1241, 2019
Wet Synthesis of Energetic Aluminum Hydride
Aluminum hydride (alane, AlH3) is a promising candidate material for solid propulsion, explosives and beyond, particularly in the aerospace field due to its high energetic capacity. This study attempted to produce a stable alane structure through a wet chemical synthesis process. Preliminary dissolution of starting reactants in ether produced a consistent crystal structure (cubic shape) and elemental constituents analogous to the theoretical composition. The chemical structure, when examined by XRD, matched well with the standard reference alpha-type alane, and the resulting particle size of the precipitated alpha-type alane ranged from 7 to 13 mu m. A pivotal step in the alane synthesis was selective crystallization from the liquid phase alane-etherate (AlH3 (Et2O)(n)), followed by acid treatment of the precipitated particulate alanes using an appropriately mixed solution.