Fundamental aspects of oxidation of electroexplosive nickel nanopowder

Fundamental aspects of the process in which a nickel nanopowder produced by an electric explosion of conductors is oxidized under heating in air at a linearly increasing temperature and in the isothermal mode were studied. It is shown that the dispersion composition of the powder, structure of the metallic core of nickel particles, and characteristics of the oxide shell affect the kinetic parameters of the process. An explanation is suggested for specific features of the macrokinetic reaction mode caused by the joint influence exerted by the relative amounts of fractions of different-size particles in the powder and by the characteristic of the oxide layer. The reaction kinetics is simulated, with the size distribution function of nickel particles taken into account.