Ni/A l Energetic Nanocomposites and the Solid Flame Phenomenon
C.E Shuck, J.M. Pauls, A.S. Mukasyan The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2016, 120, pp.27066–27078. DOI:10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b09754
This work used the FIB at Notre Dame to collect thousands of images of the nanocomposite Ni/Al system. The complete series of thousands of images were done with nm level accuracy.
Using these images, the internal structure of the nanocomposite materials was quantitatively analyzed using 3D reconstruction techniques. This was the first time in history that any group has done this. They determined surface contact between the reactants, layer thickness distributions, and then related them to observed properties. It is a paradigm shift from qualitative materials science to quantitative, statistical materials science.