We report the first study of the gas generation and thermal wave behavior during the performance of the novel nanoenergetic system based on aluminum and iodine pentoxide nanoparticles. The homogeneous mixture of Al/I2O5 ignited in the range of 605-620 degrees C and generated a thermal front that propagated through the sample with a velocity of similar to 2000 m/s. The maximum peak pressure of up to 11 MPa (m = 0.5 g) was generated by a mixture containing similar to 78 wt% of I2O5. The maximum pressure x volume PV-value for a 0.5 g sample was similar to 3.8 kPa m(3) is comparable to that generated by the same sample mass of the Bi2O3/Al system. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.