Designer Nanocellular Materials for Laser Targets and Other DNT Applications

摘要

This document and the accompanying manuscripts summarize the technical accomplishments of our one-year LDRD-ER effort, a project that has since been incorporated into a larger LDRD-SI for FY05. The objective of this effort was to develop a predictive synthetic capability for the preparation of materials with cellular architectures (sub-micron pore or cell sizes and relative densities less than 10% of full density) not attainable by conventional methods. The ability to reliably prepare these nanocellular materials and control their bulk physical properties (e.g. mechanical strength) would be a considerable advance in the areas of porous materials and its impact would cut across many existing LLNL investments. One significant area related to the Laboratory mission that would benefit is the design of new materials for high energy density physics (HEDP) targets. Current synthetic techniques do not allow for the preparation of foams that meet all of the current and projected compositional and mechanical requirements of these experiments. This project focused on two main types of materials: inorganic sol-gel materials and nanocellular metal foams. The following sections describe the project goals for these two types of materials as well as the progress made towards these goals in FY04. These sections also provide context for the three publications that have been included in this final report.