01954nab a2200205 4500 20260520000840.0 260224s2009 xxu Oxide-free, catalyst-coated, fuel-soluble, air-stable boron nanopowder as combined combustion catalyst and high energy density fuel nov./dic. 2009 09/06/2010 ; 09/06/2010 10 p. ; 6111-6120 Transcripción del resumen del autor. Elemental boron has one of the highest volumetric heats of combustion known and is therefore of interest as a high energy density fuel. The fact that boron combustion is inherently a heterogeneous process makes rapid efficient combustion difficult. An obvious strategy is to increase the surface area/volume ratio by decreasing the particle size. This approach is limited by the fact that boron forms a 0.5 nm thick native oxide layer, which not only inhibits combustion, but also consumes an increasing fraction of the particle mass as the size is decreased. Another strategy might be to coat the boron particles with a material (e.g., catalyst) to enhance combustion of either the boron itself or of a hydrocarbon carrier fuel. We present a simple, scalable, one-step process for generating air-stable boron nanoparticles that are unoxidized, soluble in hydrocarbons, and coated with a combustion catalyst. Ball milling is used to produce 50 nm particles, protected against room temperature oxidation by oleic acid functionalization, and optionally coated with catalyst. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering were used to investigate size distributions, with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to probe the boron surface chemistry. 6 Energy & fuels 23 ARTICULO Van Devener, Brian 42432 Perez, Jesus Paulo L. 42433 Jankovich, Joseph 42434 170860 170860 0 0 0 0 238679 BAAB BAAB 2026-03-05 200045714 0 200045714 2026-03-05 15:13:12 2026-03-05 ARTICULO