How To Name a Mixture of a Solid and a Liquid

[Sebastiaan]

TL;DR Summary

The chemical naming convention for Mixture Aluminium and Liquid Oxygen

Alright, I'm trying to find out what the Chemical naming convention would be of a Mixture Aluminium (nanoparticles) and Liquid Oxygen. The Mixture is mended as a monopropellant in a lunar rocket engine.

 

[Borek]

Suspension?

 

[Sebastiaan]

Yes the Aluminium Nano Particles will be suspended in Liquid Aluminium.

Would the abreviation SusAluLOx be clear to a chemist?

SusAluLOx : Sus is Chemestry abreviation for suspension, Alu for Aluminium, Lox for Liquid Oxygen

 

[Borek]

This thread triggered a discussion elsewhere, here is an additional explanation to the original post:

The idea of LOX-aluminum monopropellant was researched (easy to google), tried and found to be - on a small scale - feasible. Whether it scales up is another question. It was part of a search for fuels that could be produced locally, without a need of sending them in a rocket. This is one of the things NASA was looking into, as it makes transport much cheaper. To make the fuel on the site we need (apart from a source of energy) some locally available resources. In this case alumina (present in the Moon soil) can a be a source of both oxygen and aluminum. Not much different conceptually from using Sabatier reaction to produce fuel on Mars from (abundant) carbon dioxide.

This is definitely a dangerous material, similar to some explosives. Most rocket fuels are, though.

Would the abreviation SusAluLOx be clear to a chemist?

I am not convinced it will be automatically clear to anyone. Then, nothing can stop you from using it in a text as long as you explain it first time you use it. Although I would go for something simpler, like SALOX.

 

[Vanadium 50]

This is definitely a dangerous material, similar to some explosives.

These are nanoparticles, right? I'm sure you've seen the demo where magnesium wire glows and disintegrates when placed in liquid oxygen. Aluminum is more reactive than magnesium, and nanoparticles are more reactive than wire. One drop of LOX on powdered aluminum will set it on fire.

 

[snorkack]

If they are "nanoparticles", does chemical naming convention require calling them "suspension" or "colloid"?

 

[Sebastiaan]

These are nanoparticles, right? I'm sure you've seen the demo where magnesium wire glows and disintegrates when placed in liquid oxygen. Aluminum is more reactive than magnesium, and nanoparticles are more reactive than wire. One drop of LOX on powdered aluminum will set it on fire.

I guess you first have to cool the wire below the temperature of the Liquid Oxygen, otherwise, it would release microscopic oxygen gas bubbles in the Liquid Oxygen, which would cause the whole wire to disintegrate.

 

[Sebastiaan]

I am not convinced it will be automatically clear to anyone. Then, nothing can stop you from using it in a text as long as you explain it first time you use it. Although I would go for something simpler, like SALOX.

Ok, so I can conclude there isn't any official chemist convention for Abbreviating a suspension of solid in liquid.

SALOX seems like a artificial name to me, I guess I better simply call it AluLOx which serve as a suitable that is at least recognizable as a mixture of Aluminium and Liquid Oxygen. For clarification, the name will be used for a monopropellant resource in KSP Interstellar Extended which tries to be semi-realistic, at least for the near future technologies.

 

[Vanadium 50]

it would release microscopic oxygen gas bubbles in the Liquid Oxygen, which would cause the whole wire to disintegrate.

It will `do this anyway. The reaction is exothermic.

I think you just end up with aluminum oxide in your mix.

 

[Borek]

These are nanoparticles, right? I'm sure you've seen the demo where magnesium wire glows and disintegrates when placed in liquid oxygen. Aluminum is more reactive than magnesium, and nanoparticles are more reactive than wire. One drop of LOX on powdered aluminum will set it on fire.

Magnesium doesn't get passivated by the oxide, so the direct comparison can be misleading. What will happen depends on a balance between the effectivity of the oxide layer separating Al from the LOX and kinetics of the oxidation at very low temperatures.

In general I agree with the sentiment that the mixture of Al dust and LOX sounds like a disaster waiting to happen (basically the same can be said about every monopropellant), and several years ago my jerk knee reaction to the idea would be exactly the same as yours. However, since then I have read Clark's "Ignition" (highly recommended), and if there is one chemistry lesson I got from the book it is to not trust my intuition when it comes to highly energetic mixtures in the exotic conditions, as they tend to behave in unpredictable ways. Most often that means kaboom even faster than expected, sometimes quite the opposite. The only sure way to check is to try. The Al/LOX idea was tested by Wickman and reported to be workable (see NASA-CR-187193), at least on a small scale, they got one pound of thrust.

 

[Sebastiaan]

The Al/LOX idea was tested by Wickman and reported to be workable (see NASA-CR-187193), at least on a small scale, they got one pound of thrust.

I could not find the source you are referring to but I got inspiration from
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19920006805.pdf
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19910022004.pdf

 

[Borek]

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?N=0&Ntk=All&Ntt=NASA-CR-187193&Ntx=mode matchallpartial

 

[chemisttree]

“Colliodal” implies the suspension is stable, composed of microparticles and there is some intervening species that prevents agglomeration. If all that applies, then “colloidal” it is.

The more interesting term would be for white hot, glowing particles in a rapidly expanding suspension of liquid oxygen. Perhaps “AluLoxColBoom.”

 

[chemisttree]

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?N=0&Ntk=All&Ntt=NASA-CR-187193&Ntx=mode matchallpartial

One of the more interesting tidbits in this reference is that phosphorus pentoxide can be used to gel LOX AND that it is found in lunar regolith in amounts ranging from 0.1% to 0.5%! No processing required to produce it other than sublimation. If water is ever found on the moon in large amounts, it will likely be as a dilute solution of phosphoric acid.

 

[Sebastiaan]

phosphorus mining on the moon could become big one day because phosphorus is non very abundant elsewhere in the solar system.

 

[symbolipoint]

It is called a "sol".
Check your General Chem textbook, or whichever other reference book you want.
Also check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colloid and look in the part or section "Classification"; and there is a helpful chart or table.

 

[Sebastiaan]

It is called a "sol".
Check your General Chem textbook, or whichever other reference book you want.
Also check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colloid and look in the part or section "Classification"; and there is a helpful chart or table.

Does this mean you can abreviate a "Celloid of Aluminium in Oxygen" to SolAlO ?

 

[TeethWhitener]

Does this mean you can abreviate a "Celloid of Aluminium in Oxygen" to SolAlO ?

As others have mentioned, you can use any abbreviation you want, so long as you define it. But without first defining them, none of the abbreviations you've mentioned so far will make any sense a priori.

 

[symbolipoint]

Does this mean you can abreviate a "Celloid of Aluminium in Oxygen" to SolAlO ?

This is a weak spot I have. You seemed to want to know what KIND of colloid was it; but you really are interested in a NAME for your specific sol. Someone else may answer that part.