Preparation and characterization of GA/RDX nanostructured energetic composites

Graphene aerogel (GA) with nano-porous structure was assembled through the formation of physical cross-links between graphene sheets by a facile sol-gel method and supercritical CO (2) drying process. Then hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) was added and trapped in the nano-porous three-dimensional networks of GA to obtain a novel GA/RDX nanostructured energetic composite. The composition, morphology and structure of the obtained GA/RDX nanostructured energetic composite were characterized by elemental analysis, scanning electron microscopy, nitrogen sorption tests and X-ray diffraction. Moreover, the thermal decomposition characteristic was investigated by thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry. The results showed that GA could be a perfect aerogel matrix for the fabrication of GA/RDX nanostructured energetic composite due to its unique nano-porous structure and attributes. It was also demonstrated that RDX homogeneously disperses in the as-prepared GA/RDX nanostructured energetic composite at nanometric scale. GA showed promising catalytic effects for the thermal decomposition of RDX. After incorporating with GA, the decomposition of RDX was obviously accelerated.