Patent ID: 7632364

Claim:
An energetic composite material, comprising: inorganic particles being selected from the group consisting of metals, metalloids, metal oxides, and metalloid oxides; wherein said particles comprise more than one atom per particle and self-assembled monolayers being formed on the inorganic particles, the self-assembled monolayers comprising multifunctional linking molecules and optionally non-linking molecules, the multifunctional linking molecules each comprising a respective linking backbone and respective first and second terminal, linking functional groups, wherein the first and second terminal, linking functional groups are chemically bonded to respective surfaces of a corresponding pair of the inorganic particles so that the multifunctional linking molecules interconnect at least three of the inorganic particles to one another to form a network of the inorganic particles interconnected by the multifunctional linking molecules, which are intermediate the organic particles, wherein the optional non-linking molecules each comprise a respective non-linking backbone and a respective non-linking functional group, the respective non-linking functional group is chemically bonded to a corresponding one of the inorganic particles, and wherein a member selected from at least one of the multifunctional linking molecules and the optional non-linking molecules comprises a fluorine atom appended to at least one of the linking backbone and the non-linking backbone, respectively, to fluorinate the self-assembled monolayer.