Stacked-cup multiwall carbon nanotubes as components of energy-intensive suspension jet fuels

Objectives. The addition of high-density carbon materials to jet fuels can lead to a significant increase in the volumetric energy of the fuel combustion. The purpose of the current study was to thermodynamically analyze the possibility of obtaining model hydrocarbon fuels from toluene and T-1 using stacked-cup multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs).

Methods. Bomb combustion calorimetry was used to define the combustion energy of the MWCNTs in the crystalline state. The temperature dependence of the MWCNTs’ heat capacity in the range 5–370 K and the fusion parameters were estimated using low-temperature adiabatic calorimetry. The physical density of MWCNTs was measured using the pycnometric method. The sedimentation stability of the mixtures of MWCNTs with liquids was determined using centrifugation at 7000 g. The calculations were carried out in MS Excel.

Results. The energy and enthalpy of combustion of a technical sample of MWCNTs in the crystalline state were determined. Based on the smoothed heat capacity values, the standard thermodynamic functions (enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs reduced energy) of MWCNTs in the crystalline state were obtained in a temperature range of 0–2000 K. The extrapolation of the MWCNTs’ heat capacity was carried out at a temperature of up to 2000 K using the heat capacity of crystalline graphite. It has been established that mixtures of MWCNTs with liquids containing more than 33 mass % of MWCNTs are stable during centrifugal sedimentation at 7000 g. For the toluene–MWCNTs and fuel T-1–MWCNTs model systems, the specific and volumetric combustion energies, the adiabatic combustion temperatures, and the conditional final maximum speed of the model rockets with fuel of various compositions were also calculated.

Conclusions. The thermodynamic analysis showed that the addition of MWCNTs can significantly increase the volumetric energy intensity of traditional jet fuels, which can in turn improve the operational characteristics of drones and rockets. 

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