In-situ preparation of copper azide by direct ink writing

The aim of the present work is to design a copper azide precursor direct writing ink for primary explosive-on-a-chip. The mixture of water/vinyl alcohol and isopropanol/ethyl cellulose was used as binder. Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) used as foaming agent and dodecanol as foam stabilizer were added into the binder to produce plenty of bubbles. 40 wt% of nano-copper powder was added into the binder and the three-dimensional porous precursor ink was obtained. After 24 h of in-situ gas-solid azide reaction, the copper precursor ink was completely transformed into copper azide. An explosive device was designed to verify the detonation performance of the copper azide by direct writing, and the result showed that it can reliably initiate the CL-20 into complete detonation. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.