Microscale Thermite Reaction

Post by buildbot » Sat, May 16, 2026, 12:53 AM UTC

vapemaster wrote: post #20

jiggawatts wrote: post #15

Based on the title I was expecting to see “energetic materials”, which are carefully engineered variants of thermite. For example, alternating layers of aluminium and iron oxide can be deposited in the same manner as seen in chip production by evaporating the materials in a vacuum chamber. This allows layers tens of nanometers thin, essentially a perfect mixing and a very intimate contact between the reactants. Some…

wow I hadn't heard of this but it's quite cool. aka Nano-Thermite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano-thermite

Post by etrautmann » Sat, May 16, 2026, 5:42 AM UTC

mannykannot wrote: post #18

I have something I want to remove rust from, so I have been thinking about sand blasting. Thus, this thought popped into my head: how spectacular would it be to use aluminum powder? (To be clear, I am not going to try this.) My wife’s reaction to this was “You guys…” but I know she would absolutely want to watch if someone was going to try it.

Post by tenuousemphasis » Sun, May 17, 2026, 1:51 AM UTC

etrautmann wrote: post #23

mannykannot wrote: post #18

I have something I want to remove rust from, so I have been thinking about sand blasting. Thus, this thought popped into my head: how spectacular would it be to use aluminum powder? (To be clear, I am not going to try this.) My wife’s reaction to this was “You guys…” but I know she would absolutely want to watch if someone was going to try it.

I suspect you would need much more kinetic energy to get a thermite reaction going than the aluminum powder in a sand blaster.