Advanced Materials Processing Laboratory

Northeastern University

Nanoheater fabrication (NSF)

Objectives

- Safe production of ignitable powder-based heterostructures for micro/nanoheating applications,

             * Using heat output of an exothermic reaction,

             * Enables local selectivity, temperature distribution, time exposure control,

- Applying ultrasonic powder consolidation (UPC) to Al-Ni powders and nanoflakes,

- Testing Al-Ni consolidates for their ignition characteristics

Experimental setup used for ultrasonic powder consolidation.

(a) SEM image of an Al-Ni powder compact ultrasonically consolidated under 80 MPa pressure at 250°C, (b) SEM image of an Al-Ni nanoflake sample consolidated at 250°C under 80 MPa uniaxial pressure.