Scientists at Texas Tech University, US, have made a nanocomposite of aluminium and iron oxide that reacts exothermically when ignited. The material could have applications in explosives or as an energy source in MEMS devices or in space. “Research in nanoenergetics is at a very early stage,” Texas Tech researcher Latika Menon told nanotechweb.org. “Nanoscaled energetic materials are expected to be far superior to existing bulk energetic materials due to an increased reaction interface area and drastically decreased distances between reactants, leading to much faster diffusion-limited processes.” Techniques for making nanoscaled energetic composites currently include sol-gel processing, which results in...