Control experiments were conducted using standard fine-particle iron oxide to determine if a
similar activation effect could be seen with high-surface area iron oxide by heating in an inert atmosphere
with added hydrocarbon impurities. A formulation was made with 80% NANOCAT® Superfine Iron
Oxide (MachI Inc.), 10% SPAN® 80 (Uniqema, ICI Americas Inc., used as a dispersed carbon source),
and 10% Fluorel® FC-2175. The material was formulated by ultrasonicating in mixed esters and
evaporating off the solvent. Thermal analysis was conducted on the material with activation temperatures
of 200, 250, and 300 °C. There was no evidence of any exothermic behavior upon switching from argon
to air. This material was taken to ignition (despite not having any aluminum) and a similar trend in
ignition behavior was seen as that with sol-gel thermites as shown in Figure 5. For the three different
activation temperatures of 200, 250, and 300 °C, the ignition temperatures were 230, 244, and 281 °C,
respectively. This exothermic behavior is presumed to be oxidation of reduced iron species; however it is
not understood why these species exhibited no exothermic behavior on the initial gas switch from argon
