Energetic materials are solids that release a large amount of energy in combustion. The evaluation depends on both combustion heat and ignition temperature. Conventional non-metallic materials have low ignition temperature but small combustion heat, whereas metals have large combustion heat but high ignition temperatures. We show that many metallic glasses, combining the merits of both metals and non-metals, have large combustion heat, approximately twice that of the non-metals, and low ignition temperature that is several hundreds of Kelvin lower than that of the metals. The ease in igniting metallic glass results from the low thermal conductivity of the materials and the storage of energy in their liquid-like atomic structure. Metallic glass ribbons outweigh metallic nanoparticles due to their high production efficiency, low cost and nontoxicity. The findings suggest that metallic glasses are alternative energetic materials.

中文翻译：

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高能易燃金属玻璃

高能材料是在燃烧中释放大量能量的固体。该评估取决于燃烧热和点火温度。常规的非金属材料具有较低的着火温度但燃烧热量较小，而金属具有较大的燃烧热但点火温度较高。我们发现，结合了金属和非金属优点的许多金属玻璃具有大的燃烧热，大约是非金属的两倍，并且点火温度低，比金属低数百开尔文。金属玻璃的易燃性是由于材料的低热导率以及能量以液体状原子结构存储。金属玻璃带由于其高生产效率，低成本和无毒而胜过金属纳米颗粒。