Study of interaction of carbon nanotubes with gunpowder shot products

The paper presents a study on the use of carbon nanotubes as marking additives of gunpowder for firearms shells. The presence of carbon nanotubes in the combustion products of gunpowder was established by electron microscopy methods. Theoretical calculations of the interaction of various clusters of carbon nanotubes with metals of gunshot products confirmed the presence of sorption interaction on the outer surface of carbon nanotubes of such metals as aluminium, tin, antimony, copper, iron, magnesium, and lead. For the cases of attachment of metal atoms to CNT clusters (6,0) and (10,0): for aluminium, antimony, lead, tin, magnesium, copper and iron atoms, the internal filling of CNT clusters is not energetically advantageous. The theoretical studies show in almost all cases of metal intercalation to the studied CNTs the presence of both chemical and physical adsorption. Most often chemisorption is realised, which can be explained by the individual properties of the nanotubes used. Based on the surface profiles of potential energies for all variants of possible adsorption, a potential barrier between chemisorption and physical adsorption appears. Thus, the obtained results of the theoretical study of sorption interaction of carbon nanotubes with smokeless gunpowder shot products confirmed the experimental material obtained earlier.