Laser synthesis of nanocomposite hydrocarbon fuel and CARS diagnostics of its combustion flame

We report an analysis of diffusive combustion in oxygen of a composite fuel formed by the addition of aluminium nanoparticles (NPs) to isopropanol. The process of obtaining Al NPs consisted in laser fragmentation of initially large industrial NPs using radiation of a pulsed nanosecond neodymium laser. The size distribution of Al NPs was determined using a measuring disk centrifuge. The average nanoparticle size was 20 nm, which is confirmed by transmission electron microscopy data. A diagnostic system based on coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) was used to experimentally study the diffusive combustion of composite fuel. The temperature distributions were measured in two mutually orthogonal directions (along the flame and in the transverse direction) in pure isopropanol and in isopropanol with the addition of 0.15 wt % of Al nanoparticles.