Photosensitive material based on PETN mixtures with aluminum nanoparticles

A study was made of the explosion probability and the pressure of explosive decomposition products of PETN samples of density 1.73 g/cm$^3$ with different contents of Al nanoparticles under pulsed laser irradiation (1060 nm; 20 ns). It was experimentally found that the maximum sensitivity and maximum pressure of explosion products are obtained when the mass concentration of nanoparticles is 0.1%. In this case, the mixture sensitivity increases by factor of $\approx$100 with respect to the samples containing no nanoparticles. The observed effect is due to radiation absorption directly by nanoparticles with the formation of “hot spots”, which initiates an exothermic reaction in the main substance. It is shown that the addition of 0.1% Al decreases the impact sensitivity with respect to the samples without additives. This makes it possible to consider this mixture as a promising material for optical detonators.